D-day is finally here. The long awaited, first ever summit between the leaders of North Korea and the United States is to take place later today in Singapore at the Capella Hotel.
With today's summit,... there are high hopes that the two sides can finally put an end to the years of tensions and solve North Korea's nuclear issue.
Will North Korea denuclearize, and will the U.S. guarantee security for the North? We'll soon find out.
For more on this, our Lee Ji-won, who is part of Arirang's special Singapore Summit Coverage Team is out there in the city state for us.
Ji-won, do we know anything of the summit schedule?
Mark, in about an hour, the historic summit will take place, right here in Singapore's Capella Hotel in the country's southern island of Sentosa. And with the summit venue about 20 minutes away from where the leaders are staying, they are expected to leave anytime within the next hour.
Now, to tell you more about today's summit, the two leaders,... after their initial greeting, will start off with a one-on-one meeting, with only the translators with them, according to the White House. This will give the two leaders an opportunity to exchange their deep opinions, in their very first meeting.
This could be seen as Trump's effort to test Kim's sincerity, as Trump had said that he will know "within the first minute" if Kim is serious about giving up his nuclear arsenal and whether "something positive will happen."
The private talk will then be followed by an expanded bilateral meeting and then a working lunch. The U.S. delegates for the expanded meeting will include Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Chief of Staff John Kelly and National Security Advisor John Bolton.
Now, mind you, Bolton, a hardliner on Pyongyang, had infuriated North Korea a few weeks ago by pushing the so-called 'Libya model' on North Korea,... where the North is asked to give up all its nuclear weapons first. So I think Kim Jong-un and his delegates' exchanges or responses to Bolton will be something interesting to look out for.
And for the working lunch, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders and Ambassador Sung Kim, a former nuclear negotiator who had been at the forefront of working level talks with the North until the very last day,... will be joining Trump and Kim.
And when the summit finishes, President Trump is to hold a press briefing before returning to the U.S. at around 8 in the evening.
While many of the plans and details on the U.S. side have been shared through the White House Press Secretary's Office,... not much is known on North Korea.
But watchers say that Kim Yong-chol, Vice Chairman of North Korea's Ruling Workers' Party's Central Committee,... and the North Korean leaders' younger sister Kim Yo-jong will certainly be among those accompanying Kim in the extended meeting.
Kim, according to Reuters, is scheduled to fly back to Pyongyang at 2 in the afternoon,... that is just five hours after the start of his summit with his U.S. coun
