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(CNN) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Sunday, hours after arriving in Singapore and ahead of an historic summit with US President Donald Trump. Lee will have a separate meeting with Trump on Monday.
North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un talks with Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong during his visit to The Istana, the official residence of the prime minister, following Kim's arrival in Singapore.
During the bilateral meeting between the two leaders, Kim thanked Singapore's organization of the summit as if it was "their own family affair."
As they sat down, Kim also repeatedly praised the "excellent conditions provided" by the host country, and remarked that "for this historical summit, Singapore has provided the necessary conditions for it to take place."
Kim added that "if the summit produces positive outcomes, then the Singaporean government's effort will be recorded in history forever."
A statement released by Singapore's Foreign Ministry says Lee "complimented the bold and admirable decision" by Kim and Trump to meet. The statement also said Lee hoped the "meeting will advance the prospects for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and the larger region."
Airport greeting
Welcomed Chairman Kim Jong Un, who has just arrived in Singapore. pic.twitter.com/ZLK4ouIejx — Vivian Balakrishnan (@VivianBala) June 10, 2018
According to images released by the Singaporean government, Kim arrived on an Air China plane. Accompanying him was Kim Yong Chol, who earlier this month met with President Trump to hand deliver a letter from Kim.
Trump, who had said the young dictator had a "one-time shot" to bring his country in from the cold with the summit, arrived hours later on Air Force One at Singapore's Paya Lebar Air Base.
Hotel arrival
A CNN team was on the scene as Kim arrived at the St Regis Hotel Sunday. Around 20 North Korean guards -- distinguishable by red loyalty badges -- had earlier taken up positions, some on upper floors overlooking the hotel's lobby.
Together with Singaporean police officers and hotel staff they created a human shield around the entrance blocking Kim's arrival from view. Strict security saw hotel guests banned from holding phones or bags and told to remain seated.
When he arrived at around 3:40 p.m. local time (3:40 p.m. ET), Kim went straight to the hotel's elevators without acknowledging the crowd.
A procession of North Korean officials -- including his younger sister Kim Yo Jong -- arrived shortly afterward.
Trump on opportunity
While Trump spoke positively about his upcoming meeting with Kim, he was vague on the details of what they might actually achieve.
"I feel that Kim Jong Un wants to do something great for his people," Trump told reporters at a press conference in Canada before departing the G7 summit. "And he has that opportunity, and he won't have that opportunity again."
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Trump also speculated that the summit might not work out. He would know, he told reporters, very early on in meeting Kim, if it would.
"I think within the first minute I'll know," Trump said. "At a minimum, I do believe, at least we'll have met each other," Trump said, adding later that "hopefully, we will have liked each other."
Sources told CNN that US officials have established a contingency plan for a potential second day of discussions between Trump and Kim depending on the direction of their planned meeting on June 12.
Kim Jong Un arrived in Singapore on an Air China plane.
The cost of the summit for Singapore was some $15 million, Singapore Prime Minister Lee told reporters Sunday at the media center the city-state had constructed to deal with the enormous international demand.
"It's our contribution to an international endeavor which is in our profound interest," Lee said.
Diplomatic moves
A team of US officials had been in South Korea, traveling frequently to meet with North Korean officials in the demilitarized zone [DMZ] recently, to work on the substance of the talks.
Even as American officials including top diplomat Secretary of State Mike Pompeo say that North Korea is prepared to fully denuclearize, there are questions over what that entails for not just Pyongyang, but also Washington and Seoul.
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Since Kim decided to reach out through diplomatic means to the South in January of this year, he has signaled that he is prepared to accept certain aspects of the US-South Korea military alliance.
In March, Moon said Kim understood the South's stance on holding military drills with the US military, but last month suspended talks with the South because of annual air combat drills involving some 2,000 troops from the US and South Korea.
But questions remain over Kim's willingness to fully abandon his nuclear program, dismantle weapons and allow independent experts in to verify and inspect every site in the country that might be involved.
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There is also the question of what will become of North Korea's short and medium-range ballistic missiles, which has been a great concern for North Korea's neighbors, including Japan.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe flew to Washington last week to meet with Trump before the G7 to ensure Japan's interests weren't overlooked in the summit.
Regional allies are concerned that Washington will focus mainly on the threat to the US mainland and push North Korea on its intercontinental ballistic missiles, without also including the lesser threat to the US, but a threat nevertheless, to the region.
Donald Trump has landed in Singapore ahead of a highly anticipated summit with Kim Jong-un.
Air Force One touched down at Paya Lebar airbase at 8.21pm (1321 BST) and the US president was greeted by Singapore’s foreign minister, Vivian Balakrishnan. Trump and his team, who arrived a few hours after the North Korean leader, had travelled straight from the G7 summit in Canada.
Kim arrived at Changi airport on an Air China jet, with a huge security presence that included two decoy flights. After shaking hands with Balakrishnan, Kim was driven through the city to his hotel in a limousine with two North Korean flags on the bonnet, surrounded by other black vehicles with tinted windows.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kim Jong-un arrives in Singapore on an Air China jet, a few hours ahead of Trump. Photograph: Reuters
Kim smiled broadly on Sunday as he met the Singaporean prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong. “The entire world is watching the historic summit between [North Korea] and the United States of America, and thanks to your sincere efforts … we were able to complete the preparations for the historic summit,” Kim told Lee through an interpreter.
Trump has said he will know within a minute of meeting Kim whether the summit can succeed.
The secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, the national security adviser, John Bolton, the White House chief of staff, John Kelly, and the press secretary, Sarah Sanders, are believed to have travelled with the president.
Play Video 0:29 Kim Jong-un's motorcade drives through Singapore – video
Kim is staying at the St Regis hotel during the summit, which is being held at the Capella hotel on the island of Sentosa.
Key discussion points will be North Korea’s nuclear weapons and the pursuit of peace on the Korean peninsula. Pyongyang has spent decades developing nuclear weapons, culminating in the test of a thermonuclear device last year. It also successfully tested missiles that could reach the US mainland.
The tests took place during a campaign of “maximum pressure”, led by the US that tightened economic sanctions against North Korea and raised the possibility of military action.
Play Video 2:22 Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un’s rocky road to Singapore – video explainer
In a new year address, Kim said North Korea had finished developing its nuclear arsenal and would focus on the economy, suggesting a meeting with South Korea.
After a flurry of contacts between the countries, officials in Seoul suggested to Trump in March that Kim would be willing to meet face to face.
The summit comes after weeks of discussions and was briefly cancelled following an exchange of menacing statements.
Leaders touch down for first talks between sitting US president and North Korea
Donald Trump and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, have arrived in Singapore two days before a historic summit over the fate of North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme.
The US president exited Air Force One at Paya Lebar airbase and was greeted by the Singapore foreign minister, Vivian Balakrishnan. The trip follows a tumultuous G7 meeting in Canada, where Trump personally attacked the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau and refused to sign a previously agreed joint communique.
Kim arrived at Changi airport several hours earlier onboard a commercial Air China plane, after intense speculation with the public tracking three separate aircraft leaving Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.
It is the farthest Kim has travelled since taking power in 2011, and only his third known trip outside the country since then, with the use of a Chinese plane raising questions over the state of North Korea’s ageing fleet of Soviet-built aircraft.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, arrives in Singapore on Sunday. Photograph: Social Media/Reuters
In what will be the first meeting between a sitting US president and the leader of North Korea, Trump has lowered the bar from initially demanding Kim agree to immediately relinquish North Korea’s nuclear arsenal to saying Tuesday’s summit could be the first of many.
While Kim has said he supports “complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”, he has yet to articulate specific demands, and experts warn the process could take years.
But the meeting alone has been a boon for Kim, who only last year was seen as an international pariah by threatening nuclear war. Since the beginning of the year, he has met the Chinese president twice and held a historic summit with South Korea. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is reportedly preparing to meet Kim and the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, says he will travel to Pyongyang, according to North Korean state media.
Trump: I'll know whether Kim summit will be successful 'in first minute' Read more
The mere fact of meeting Trump is a diplomatic coup for the young leader, who is seeking to cast himself as a serious statesman on the international stage. Kim’s push for rapprochement has already weakened sanctions, with China relaxing controls.
As Kim’s black Mercedes arrived at the St Regis hotel, it was almost surrounded by bodyguards in suits jogging alongside the car. The scene is reminiscent of Kim’s summit with the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, in April when bodyguards flanked Kim’s car as it left the venue.
Kim met the Singaporean prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, briefly on Sunday, smiling broadly as the two posed for photographs.
“The entire world is watching the historic summit between [North Korea] and the United States of America, and thanks to your sincere efforts ... we were able to complete the preparations for the historic summit,” Kim told Lee through an interpreter. Trump is expected to meet Lee on Monday.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Donald Trump steps off his plane as he arrives at Paya Lebar airbase in Singapore. Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters
About 2,500 journalists from around the world registered to cover the event, according to Singapore’s ministry of communications.
Security in the city-state has been placed on high alert and traffic has been slowed to a near-standstill on the roads near the hotels where Kim and Trump are staying. Tuesday’s meeting will take place at the Capella Hotel, on the island resort of Sentosa. The summit will cost Singaporean government more than £11m, Lee said.
Two South Korean journalists were deported on Saturday after they were arrested for trespassing at the home of the North Korean ambassador earlier in the week. A man from a “region country” was denied entry to Singapore after police searched his mobile phone and found he had been searching for information on suicide bombings.
