President Donald Trump announced Thursday that a historic meeting between him and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will take place in Singapore on June 12.
“We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!” Trump wrote in a tweet posted Thursday morning.
The president made the announcement days after saying that a time and place had been agreed to by American and North Korean officials.
Trump previously said he wanted to hold the meeting with Kim at the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea, but Singapore was favored by most of the president's advisers, The Associated Press reported.
Earlier Thursday, three Americans were welcomed at Maryland's Joint Base Andrews after being detained in North Korea for more than a year each.
Original report: President Donald Trump said Friday that officials from the U.S. and North Korea have agreed to a time and a place for a historical summit between the two nations during which officials expect to hammer out a plan for denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
“The trip is being scheduled,” Trump said. “We now have a date and a location. We’ll be announcing it shortly.”
The president declined to discuss at length reports that North Korean officials planned the pre-summit release of three Americans detained in the country for years. Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani told Fox News earlier this week that North Korean officials would be releasing three Americans on Thursday, although officials did not confirm their release.
“We’re having very substantive talks with North Korea and a lot of things have already happened with respect to the hostages,” Trump said. “I think you’re going to be seeing very, very good things.”
Mike Pompeo met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last month before he was sworn in on April 26 to serve as secretary of state.
“(The) meeting went very smoothly and a good relationship was formed,” Trump wrote April 18 in a Twitter post. “Details of (the) Summit are being worked out now. Denuclearization will be a great thing for (the) World, but also for North Korea!”
Pompeo's meeting was the first high-level meeting with Pyongyang since 2000 when then-Secretary of State Madeline Albright met with Kim's father, Kkim Jong Il, The Washington Post reported.
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