Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said that the summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Un, slated for Tuesday, may proceed into Wednesday.
“I believe this summit is only the first step of a much longer and difficult process. The fact that it occurs is already positive.
“Let’s see what agreements, or at least, tentative agreements they can come up with on Tuesday or latest, Wednesday,” Balakrishnan told the BBC, as quoted in the ministry’s Monday transcript.
The U.S.-North Korean summit in Singapore will mark the first-ever meeting of sitting leaders of the two countries.
Similarly, Singaporean Prime Minister, Lee Loong, said that North Korean leader ‘wants to go onto a new path’ by meeting with President Trump.
On Sunday, the Singaporean prime minister met with Jong-Un following latter’s arrival in the country for the upcoming talks with Trump, scheduled for Tuesday.
“He is a confident, young leader. He came and he said ‘thank you for hosting and we hope that will be a historic occasion.’ I think he wants to go onto a new path.
“What he is prepared to deal and how an agreement can be worked out, that is a complicated matter.
“But I think he has an intention to do something, and that is why he is meeting Trump,” Loong said in an interview with U.S. journalist, Christiane Amanpour.
The high-anticipated talks had been put at risk, when, on May 24, Trump announced he was canceling the meeting with Loong over Pyongyang’s hostile rhetoric.
However, Trump re-instated the summit after meeting with Loong ‘s top aide, Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea Vice Chairman Kim Chol, at the White House.
The meeting has become possible due to significant thaw of tensions on the Korean peninsula.
In January, Kim decided to initiate talks with the South Korean side amid the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, while the relations further improved in April, when the North Korean leader met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in the truce village of Panmunjom at the border between the two Koreas.
The two leaders agreed to rid the peninsula of nuclear weapons and sign a peace agreement this year.
