Donald Trump will come face to face with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, in Singapore on 12 June, the US president announced on Thursday.
The summit – a first between a sitting US president and his North Korean counterpart – will be the stage for critical talks aimed at curbing North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme.
Trump announced the details on Twitter by writing: “The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong-un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!”
The decision ended weeks of speculation about possible venues for the summit. Trump himself had floated the idea of Singapore or the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, where Kim last month met the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in.
The announcement came hours after Trump welcomed Mike Pompeo back to the US from Pyongyang with three American citizens whom North Korea had been holding prisoner for more than a year. Their release followed talks between Pompeo, the new secretary of state, and Kim about the forthcoming meeting.