On the eve of their unprecedented summit, President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made last minute preparations on Monday as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the meeting would be the beginning of a process that would "set the conditions for future talks."
Trump forecast a "nice" outcome, while Kim spent the day out of view as both sides finalized preparations for the meeting, which was to kick off at 9 a.m. Tuesday with a handshake between Trump and Kim, an image sure to be devoured around the world. Trump and Kim planned to meet one on one, joined only by translators, for up to two hours before a larger meeting with key advisers, a US official said.
Pompeo told reporters Monday that ongoing talks between the two countries were advancing well, but stressed the meeting would be the beginning of a process that would "set the conditions for future talks."
Pompeo added that the US was prepared to take action to provide North Korea with "sufficient certainty" that denuclearization "is not something that ends badly for them." He would not say whether that included the possibility of withdrawing US troops from the Korean Peninsula.
The summit will be the first between a North Korean leader and a sitting American president. In Singapore, the island city-state hosting the summit, Trump headed on Monday to meet Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
As Trump and Lee sat down for a working lunch at the Istana house, Trump sounded optimistic, telling Lee, "we've got a very interesting meeting in particular tomorrow, and I think things can work out very nicely."
Trump also called the leaders of South Korea and Japan in advance of the summit, Pompeo said.
Meanwhile, US and North Korean officials huddled at the Ritz-Carlton hotel for nearly three hours Monday ahead of the sit-down aimed at resolving a standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal.
The meetings also served as an ice breaker of sorts as the teams worked to get better acquainted after decades of minimal US-North Korea contact.
Pompeo traveled twice to Pyongyang in recent months to lay the groundwork for Trump's meeting, becoming the most senior member of Trump's team to spend time with Kim face to face.
Trump has said he hopes to make a legacy-defining deal for the North to give up its nuclear weapons, though he has recently sought to minimize expectations, saying additional meetings may be necessary.
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