With both US president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un due to arrive today ahead of Tuesday’s summit, Singapore’s own prime minister will greet them first — but separately, according to a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
PM @leehsienloong will have separate meetings with Kim Jong Un and @realDonaldTrump when they visit Singapore for the US-DPRK Summit. https://t.co/NY75OTtUPl
— MFAsg (@MFAsg) June 10, 2018
On the agenda for PM Lee Hsien Loong today: his first-ever meeting with Kim. The supreme leader is expected to arrive sometime today, with an anonymous source revealing to Reuters that he will land at Changi Airport. The Straits Times reported that refrigerator trucks will receive perishable supplies such as food items from the Ilyushin Il-76 at Changi Airport and transport them to St. Regis, where the North Korean leader is expected to stay.
Not surprising, considering that Kim has been extremely worried about security at the summit and “is fearful of assassination attempts,” Bloomberg quoted two sources familiar with the talks as saying.
PM Lee will only meet Trump on Monday, and likely get him up to speed on how things are going with Kim. The US president had attended the G7 summit on Friday in Canada and left early to fly to Singapore to prepare for the landmark summit. Being the unpredictable character he is, he left the G7 summit in a disarray after he changed his mind about signing an agreement for global cooperation and attacked Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau in a series of tweets, calling him “dishonest and weak”.
PM Justin Trudeau of Canada acted so meek and mild during our @G7 meetings only to give a news conference after I left saying that, “US Tariffs were kind of insulting” and he “will not be pushed around.” Very dishonest & weak. Our Tariffs are in response to his of 270% on dairy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2018
Speaking about “meek and mild”, it’s funny to note that this is the image from the G7 summit that German Chancellor Angela Merkel chose to share on Instagram.
Though he left that summit on a sour note, Trump is looking forward to the Singapore summit with North Korea, believing that “this one-time opportunity will not be wasted”.
…Create peace and great prosperity for his land. I look forward to meeting him and have a feeling that this one-time opportunity will not be wasted!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2018
According to Trump’s press schedule, he’ll be arriving at Paya Lebar Air Base at 8:35pm tonight and depart for Shangri-La Hotel immediately after.
