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U.S., North Korean Officials Make Final Preparations For Trump-Kim Summit


U.S. President Donald Trump (left) and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un
U.S. President Donald Trump (left) and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un

U.S. President Donald Trump said June 11 that his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore could "work out very nicely" as officials from both countries met in Singapore to make final preparations for the event.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told a news conference on June 11 that preparations were moving quite rapidly and "and we anticipate that they will come to their logical conclusion even more quickly than we anticipated."

Discussions between Trump and Kim will focus on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

The summit provides "an unprecedented opportunity to change the trajectory of our relationship and bring peace and prosperity" to North Korea, Pompeo said.

But Pompeo declined to indicate that a quick breakthrough was possible, saying instead that the summit should set the framework for "the hard work that will follow."

He said North Korea must achieve complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization, adding that sanctions will not be lifted until that happened.

"If diplomacy does not move in the right direction...those measures will increase," Pompeo said.

Trump and Kim arrived hours apart on June 10 in Singapore, preparing for the meeting on June 12 on the resort island of Sentosa, which will be the first time a sitting U.S. president will meet with a North Korean leader.

At a working lunch with Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Trump voiced optimism, telling Lee, "We've got a very interesting meeting in particular tomorrow, and I think things can work out very nicely."

On June 10, Trump had said he would know "within a minute" if Kim was serious about giving up his nuclear weapons.

Besides Pompeo, Trump's delegation includes national security adviser John Bolton, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, and White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.

North Korean defectors and human rights campaigners have called for human rights abuses in North Korea to be highlights at the summit.

"It is not time to focus on nuclear weapons. It is time to focus on how North Korea oppresses its people," Yeonmi Park, a defector who now lives in New York, told Reuters on June 11.

The United Nations also has called for human rights issues to be included in the negotiations.

Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in North Korea, has said that "a human rights dialogue should be included" in the talks "for this new process to be successful."

"Human rights and security and peace are interlinked, definitely," Quintana said on June 7.

Quintana also called on North Korea to issue "a general amnesty to release hundreds of prisoners who are under detention" in order to signal "their willingness to commit to the UN human rights principles."

When asked on June 9 whether he would raise the issue of North Korea's gulags and rights abuses, Trump said "We're going to raise every issue."

Meanwhile, Tehran has advised North Korea to be wary of negotiating with Trump following his withdrawal from Iran's 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said on June 11 that North Korea should approach this week's summit with Trump with "awareness."

Ghasemi said Iran views Trump and the United States with "great pessimism" over "quitting treaties and violating their commitments."

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters

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