President Donald Trump took a moment in his history making summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un to show off his presidential limousine.
President Trump said he had developed a very special bond with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during their historic summit here Tuesday, reversing decades of U.S. policy toward the rogue regime in an extraordinary gamble that his personal attention would help break a cycle of nuclear brinkmanship and stave off a military confrontation.
After more than four hours of meetings at Singapore’s secluded and opulent Capella resort, the two leaders sat beside each other and signed what Trump called a very comprehensive agreement setting the path forward for negotiations.
Trump and Jong-un had just finished off a working lunch when the American president appeared to make an unscheduled stop at the huge armored car, known as The Beast.
News footage showed the world leaders approaching the American flag bedecked limo, before Trump gestured to the car and a Secret Service agent opened the passenger door.
The North Korean leader smiled as he was allowed a rare look inside the $1.6 million vehicle which is designed to survive a military-style or chemical warfare attack. The car travels everywhere with the U.S. president and flies in the belly of his plane when he’s abroad.
President Donald Trump took a moment in his history-making summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un to show off his presidential limousine
Trump and Jong-un had just finished off a working lunch when the American president appeared to make an unscheduled stop at the huge armored car, known as The Beast
The move appeared to top off what was seemingly a successful afternoon of talks.
Trump sounded optimistic, saying: ‘We had a really fantastic meeting.’
A lot of progress. Really very positive. I think better than anybody could have expected. Top of the line. Really good, he said.
The Beast, or Cadillac One, is President Trump’s iteration of the presidential limo.
The power move is likely to have impressed Jong-un who, despite his nation’s isolation, has a taste for American culture and Western luxury.
Growing up, attending an international school in Switzerland, friends remembered the dictator as a basketball lover, who was a big fan of Michael Jordan.
The power move is likely to have impressed Jong-un who, despite his nation’s isolation, has a taste for American culture and Western luxury
He also has his own version of The Beast, a $2 million armored Mercedes Benz S600 which even has a portable toilet, according to the Washington Post.
On Tuesday morning, Trump’s motorcade was the first to pull into the Capella Resort in Singapore, which has been closed to outsiders for days out of extreme precaution.
Jong-unwas not far behind, after making the under-fifteen minute drive from his hotel to Sentosa island along a route filled with gawkers.
They began the summit with a hearty handshake, exchanging pleasantries for the cameras and meeting one-on-one for 38 minutes with only translators present while the world watched with anticipation as the first-ever meeting between a U.S. president and a North Korean leader unfolded.
The leaders were treated to a six-course meal that included three deserts – including Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream – at their historic summit.
It was the kind of gut-busting meal that could bring mutual camaraderie – not that either leader is watching his weight.
Get a good picture everybody so we look nice and handsome and thin. Perfect, Trump told photographers and a TV crew at the start of the lunch.
The car travels everywhere with the U.S. president and flies in the belly of his plane when he’s abroad
Kim reportedly has packed on weight so he could emulate his powerful grandfather. Trump notched just below obese in his first White House physical and is trying to lose 10 to 15 pounds.
Diplomats had just weeks to put together the Singapore summit, settling on an elegant – and substantial – meal for the two leaders at their ‘working lunch.’
Following their lunch, Trump and Jong-un took the sojourn to take a sneak peak at The Beast which was parked outside.
The Beast weighs eight tonnes and has eight-inch thick steel doors that weigh the same as those on a Boeing 757 – and are sealed to withstand biological and chemical attacks.
The front windscreen can withstand armour piercing bullets or a .44 magnum and the bodywork is military grade and five inches thick.
The reinforced undercarriage with withstand going over a roadside bomb and the fuel tank is explosive resistant.
Only the driver’s side window can open in case he needs to pay a toll – and in the boot are cases of the President’s blood for an emergency transfusion.
The motorcade of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un travels towards Sentosa for his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, in Singapore
Among the other features are shotguns on board in case an attack breaks out, Kevlar tyres that run even if they are flat and an oxygen system in the trunk in case of a chemical attack.
A number of guns are hidden in the front grille of the vehicle which can be used to fire on an attacker.
The Beast also has night vision cameras on board and appears to run on diesel due to the oversized rectangular fuel filler door.
The Beast is not the only hi-tech vehicle in the Presidential fleet.
Among the motorcade is the President’s own communications antenna – a mobile cellphone tower strapped to the top of a car in his motorcade.
And always nearby is the military aide carrying the ‘Nuclear Football’, which is the briefcase which stores instructions in case of a military attack.
One of the few times The Beast has broken down was in 2013 when a driver put the wrong fuel into it while on a trip to Israel.
The embarrassing blunder left the Secret Service scrambling to find a vehicle that could take President Obama around Tel Aviv. He was not on board at the time.
Obama’s staff had anticipated every eventuality with The Beast and had bought generators and backup equipment but they did not count on such a basic human error.
Another incident was on a 2011 trip to Ireland when The Beast got stuck on a speed bump outside the US Embassy in Dublin.
The document was not immediately released, but Trump held aloft a copy for news photographers. Images show that the agreement includes a pledge by Trump to provide security guarantees to North Korea, while Chairman Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
When asked about Kim’s commitment to the process of getting rid of North Korea’s nuclear weapons, Trump said: We are starting that process very quickly. Very, very quickly.
But the document is an outline, with no specifics or deadlines and leaves the details on key issues such as how the United States would verify that North Korea had given up its nuclear program for future talks. It commits the two leaders to follow-on meetings and a new relationship between the nations, but it does not say that diplomatic relations would be opened.
President Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea have committed to cooperate for the development of new U.S.-DPRK relations and for the promotion of peace, prosperity, and security of the Korean Peninsula and of the world, the agreement reads.
Throughout the day, Trump cast his meetings with Kim in the most positive light.
“We are very proud of what took place today,” Trump said before he and Kim shook hands a final time. “I think our whole relationship with North Korea and the Korean Peninsula is going to be a very much different situation than it has in the past. We both want to do something, we both are going to do something. We have developed a very special bond.”
Trump added: We are going to take care of a very big and a very dangerous problem for the world.
Kim thanked Trump for making the summit happen.
Today we had a historic meeting and decided to leave the past behind, Kim said through an interpreter. The whole world will see a great change.
Neither leader was specific about what the next step would be, although Trump said he would absolutely invite Kim to the White House.
“This is going to lead to more and more and more,” Trump said.
But beneath the remarkable images from the Capella was the thornier reality that the two sides remained divided on crucial issues and on a denuclearization plan, which could take years to complete and would probably face significant stumbling blocks along the way.
Ahead of the meeting, U.S. officials had said that if the session went well it would yield a series of more detailed discussions about ridding North Korea of nuclear weapons in exchange for economic benefits and security assurances.
The two leaders began meeting shortly after 9 a.m. local time, approaching one another from opposite wings on a stage with a red carpet and a row of alternating U.S. and North Korean flags.
They shook hands and held their grip before turning to face a small group of journalists for images to be beamed rapidly around the world, both men maintaining serious expressions.
The president motioned to Kim to leave the stage, and the two men retreated into a private chamber to meet one on one, joined only by their interpreters, with the aim of establishing a rapport before the more technical nuclear arms negotiations.
The unprecedented greeting between the unorthodox leader of the world’s richest and most powerful nation and the brutal ruler of the most isolated and repressive would have been considered almost unimaginable just months ago as Trump, 71, and Kim, 34, traded threats and personal insults.
Never before had a sitting U.S. president met with a ruling Kim family patriarch, as previous White Houses refused to validate the regime amid its nuclear provocations and human rights abuses.
During an expanded meeting after their one-on-one session, Trump was flanked by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, national security adviser John Bolton and White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly.
Kim was joined by Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho and Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party, who had visited Trump at the White House two weeks earlier.
Later in the day, after a formal seated luncheon, Trump continued to strike a positive tone.
It’s going great. We had a really fantastic meeting, lot of progress, Trump told reporters as he and Kim walked together at the resort. Really very positive. I think better than anybody could have expected, top of the line. Really good.
Trump then walked Kim over to his armored presidential limousine. A Secret Service agent held a door open so Kim could peer inside the Beast.
In the days before the meeting, with negotiators struggling to reach a basic agreement, Trump and his aides sought to lower expectations about how quickly the administration could persuade Pyongyang to begin dismantling its weapons arsenal.
One major issue that appeared to remain unresolved following the summit was North Korea’s brutal human rights record, which Trump had lambasted last year after the death of American college student Otto Warmbier, who had been held captive in the North for 17 months and then released in a coma.
Trump, who delights in challenging conventional wisdom, seized on the chance to do what other presidents could not and, despite having taken office with scant geopolitical experience, quickly elevated the escalating North Korea threat to his top foreign policy priority.
As Pyongyang demonstrated rapidly sophisticated proficiency in its nuclear arsenal, Trump oversaw a tightening of economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation of Pyongyang only to leap in March at Kim’s offer to meet, despite warnings from former U.S. officials that he was moving too quickly and rewarding the regime for its bad behavior.
At 8:53 a.m., a black stretch Mercedes sedan bearing North Korean flags pulled up to the Capella. Kim stepped out in a traditional black Mao suit and quickly entered the building. Trump followed six minutes later, emerging from the presidential limousine in a dark suit and red power tie, and with an impassive stare.
At 9:04 a.m., they strode toward each other and, as they shook hands, Trump patted Kim’s right shoulder with his left hand.
It was the moment of truth for Trump, who last week boasted that he would use his touch and his feel as a seasoned dealmaker to size up the leader of the world’s most opaque regime and determine within the first minute whether he was serious about making a deal.
Seated next to Kim ahead of the private meeting, Trump said: It’s my honor, and we will have a terrific relationship, I have no doubt.
Kim spoke in Korean of the old prejudices that have hampered relations. But we’ve overcome all of them, and we are here today, he said.
Trump and his team vowed Monday that the United States would not repeat past missteps. Deals reached between Washington and Pyongyang under Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama collapsed after North Korea conducted additional missile and nuclear tests.
“The United States has been fooled before there’s no doubt about it, Pompeo told reporters Monday. Despite any past flimsy agreements, the president will ensure no potential agreement fails to adequately address the North Korean threat.
On his final day before meeting Kim, Trump sought to consolidate support from key allies, speaking by phone with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who have been in close coordination with the White House for months.
It was Moon’s outreach to Kim around the Winter Olympics, which were held in South Korea in February, that launched a flurry of diplomatic engagements that culminated in the Trump-Kim summit.
At a cabinet meeting in Seoul on Tuesday, Moon said he was so excited that he had had trouble sleeping. “I join all the people in ardently aspiring for the success of the summit to bring complete denuclearization and peace to us and usher in a new era among the two Koreas and the United States,” Moon said.
At Seoul’s main train station, travelers applauded as they watched the handshake between Kim and Trump on a big TV screen.
I am hopeful now that hostilities will die down, said Lim Sung-gyu, a 24-year-old college student who is waiting to do his South Korean military service.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpYVMSbV3Jw