By Soyoung Kim, Steve Holland and Jack Kim

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a "comprehensive" document following a historic summit aimed at the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

There were no immediate details on the contents of the document but Trump said he expected the denuclearization process to start "very, very quickly".

Although the breakthrough made at the summit marks just the start of a diplomatic process, it could bring lasting change to the security landscape of Northeast Asia, just as former U.S. President Richard Nixon visit to Beijing in 1972 led to the t***sformation of China.

Before signing what Trump described as a "comprehensive letter", Kim said the two leaders had a historic meeting “and decided to leave the past behind. The world will see a major change.”

Trump said he had formed a "very special bond" with Kim and that relationship with North Korea would be very different.

"People are going to be very impressed and people are going to be very happy and we are going to take care of a very dangerous problem for the world," Trump said.

Asked whether he would invite Kim to the White House, Trump said: "Absolutely, I will."

During a post-lunch stroll through the gardens of the Singapore hotel where the summit was held, Trump said the summit had gone "better than anybody could have expected".

Kim stood silently alongside, but the North Korean leader had earlier described their meeting as a "a good prelude to peace".

Both men walked to Trump's bullet-proof limousine, nicknamed "The Beast", and looked in at the rear seat, with Trump apparently showing Kim something inside. They then resumed their walk.

They had appeared cautious and serious when they first arrived for the summit at the Capella hotel on Singapore's Sentosa, a resort island with luxury hotels, a casino, manmade beaches and a Universal Studios theme park.

But, with cameras of the world's press trained on them, they displayed an initial atmosphere of bonhomie as they met on the verandah of the Capella, a refurbished 19th century British regimental officers' mess.

After a handshake, they were soon smiling and holding each other by the arm, before Trump guided Kim to the library where they held a meeting with only their interpreters. Trump had said on Saturday he would know within a minute of meeting Kim whether he would reach a deal.

MARKETS RISE

Inside, they sat alongside each other against a backdrop of North Korean and U.S. f**gs, with Kim beaming broadly as the U.S. president gave him a thumbs up.


The combatants of the 1950-53 Korean War are technically still at war, as the conflict, in which millions of people died, was concluded only with a truce.

After initial exchanges lasting around 40 minutes, Trump and Kim emerged, walking side-by-side through the colonnaded hotel before entering a meeting room, where they were joined by their most senior officials.

Kim was heard telling Trump through a t***slator: "I think the entire world is watching this moment. Many people in the world will think of this as a scene from a fantasy...science fiction movie."

Asked by a reporter how the meeting was going, Trump said: "Very good. Very, very good. Good relationship."

Kim also sounded positive about the prospects of peace.

"We overcame all kinds of scepticism and speculations about this summit and I believe that this is good for the peace," he said. "I believe this is a good prelude for peace."

The dollar jumped to a 3-week top on Tuesday and Asian shares rose on the news.

Trump was joined by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Adviser John Bolton, and John Kelly, White House Chief of Staff, for the expanded talks, while Kim's team included former military intelligence chief Kim Yong Chol, foreign minister Ri Yong Ho and Ri Su Yong, vice chairman of the ruling Workers' Party.

As the two leaders met, Singapore navy vessels, and air force Apache helicopters patrolled, while fighter jets and an Gulfstream 550 early warning aircraft circled.

Body language expert said both men tried to project command as they met, but also displayed signs of nerves.

After the meetings, the two teams and other senior officials met for a working lunch, where beef short ribs, sweet and sour pork and "Daegu Jormin", or Korean braised cod, were served for the main course, according to the menu. That was to be followed by dark chocolate tarts, pastries and vanilla ice cream for dessert. The North Korean leader's sister and close confidante Kim Yo Jong was among the lunch party.

As the cameras captured the moment, Trump quipped: "Very nice. Getting a good picture everyone, so we all look nice and handsome and thin...perfect".

In the hours before the summit began, Trump expressed optimism about prospects for the first-ever meeting of sitting U.S. and North Korean leaders, while Pompeo injected a note of caution whether Kim would prove to be sincere about his willingness to denuclearize.

Pompeo said the summit should set the framework for "the hard work that will follow", insisting that North Korea had to move toward complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization.

North Korea, however, has shown little appetite for surrendering nuclear weapons it considers vital to the survival of Kim's dynastic rule.

Sanctions on North Korea would remain in place until that happened, Pompeo said on Monday. "If diplomacy does not move in the right direction ... those measures will increase."

The White House said later that discussions with North Korea had moved "more quickly than expected" and Trump would leave Singapore on Tuesday night after the summit, rather than Wednesday, as scheduled earlier.

Kim is due to leave on Tuesday afternoon, a source involved in the planning of his visit has said.

Trump spoke to Moon and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, both key allies of Washington in the region, to discuss developments ahead of the summit.

"I too, got little sleep last night," Moon told his cabinet in Seoul as the summit began in Singapore.

"I truly hope it will be a successful summit that will open a new age for the two Koreas and the United States and bring us complete denuclearization and peace."

(Additional reporting by Dewey Sim, Aradhana Aravindan, Himani Sarkar, Miral Fahmy, John Geddie, Joyce Lee, Grace Lee, Matt Spetalnick and David Brunnstrom in Singapore and Christine Kim in Seoul; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Let’s see, he rips our loyal allies a new one including insulting Canada’s PM, then cuddles with a known murderous fratricidal dictator that overseas the abuse, rape and execution of thousands of his own people in Korean Gulags, even calling him “honorable” in order to score a diplomatic c**p. If this initiative is successful, (and in spite of my antipathy for Trumps distasteful personality) I will give him credit where it is due. Remember though that Nixon went to China under similar circumstances and look how that ended up.
I’m sure we all wish for the best outcome regardless of who is in the White House but history has a way of using fools to achieve useful ends when nothing else seems to work, a risky proposition at best and a potential disaster at worst.

America has not won at anything.EVERYTHING TRUMP HAS TOUCHED HAS TURN INTO A DISASTER.Other NATIONS are now learning and working to succeed without the US the u.s only makes up 5% yes 5% of the world's population.THAT LEAVES THE OTHER NATIONS 95% to do business with.The farmers in Iowa has already loss$560,000,000 MILLIONS dollars in soybean sales to China,How many people will lose their jobs behind that,,And the tax cut that companies where going to use to buy new equipment and hire more people to work that's not happening either Harley Davidson got a 650million dollar tax cut and do they do they shut down a plant in Kansas lays off 850 people and will open a new plant in Bangkok.Nor did any of these companies give their employees raises,oh yeah JP Morgan gave certain employees a bonus that is not a raise.IF you do not own a business don't get s**t in 3,years the increase in personal deductions. Expire in 3,years at that time your tax rate will go up 25% and all of you home buyers that lost your mortgage deductions on interest paid on that loan in when your taxes goes up your mortgage interest deductions are gone forever ever.you don't get that back..All you Trump SUPPORTERS before he is done will come to acknowledge damn he conned us good starting with RUAL AMERICA no jobs have came to you,he DISPISES poor white people,What benefits have you all gotten from him,except that he is cutting ya,ll throat and asking you to thank him for it..DO me a favor discard all the noise and AND OPEN YOUR EYES AND LOOK AT THE T***H FOR YOUR SELF.IT WILL FRIGHTEN YOU TO SEE WHAT HE AND HIS GROUP OF ULTRA RICH FRIENDS ARE ROBBING FROM THE AMERICAN PEOPLE HE HAS DONE NOTHING TO BENEFIT THE WORKING PEOPLE THAT V**ED FOR HIM.YOU CAN PROVE ME WRONG BY REPLYING TO ME AND TELLING ME OF ONE THING JUST ONE THING HE HAS DONE FOR WORKING CLASS AMERICANS

By Soyoung Kim, Steve Holland and Jack Kim

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a "comprehensive" document following a historic summit aimed at the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

There were no immediate details on the contents of the document but Trump said he expected the denuclearization process to start "very, very quickly".

Although the breakthrough made at the summit marks just the start of a diplomatic process, it could bring lasting change to the security landscape of Northeast Asia, just as former U.S. President Richard Nixon visit to Beijing in 1972 led to the t***sformation of China.

Before signing what Trump described as a "comprehensive letter", Kim said the two leaders had a historic meeting “and decided to leave the past behind. The world will see a major change.”

Trump said he had formed a "very special bond" with Kim and that relationship with North Korea would be very different.

"People are going to be very impressed and people are going to be very happy and we are going to take care of a very dangerous problem for the world," Trump said.

Asked whether he would invite Kim to the White House, Trump said: "Absolutely, I will."

During a post-lunch stroll through the gardens of the Singapore hotel where the summit was held, Trump said the summit had gone "better than anybody could have expected".

Kim stood silently alongside, but the North Korean leader had earlier described their meeting as a "a good prelude to peace".

Both men walked to Trump's bullet-proof limousine, nicknamed "The Beast", and looked in at the rear seat, with Trump apparently showing Kim something inside. They then resumed their walk.

They had appeared cautious and serious when they first arrived for the summit at the Capella hotel on Singapore's Sentosa, a resort island with luxury hotels, a casino, manmade beaches and a Universal Studios theme park.

But, with cameras of the world's press trained on them, they displayed an initial atmosphere of bonhomie as they met on the verandah of the Capella, a refurbished 19th century British regimental officers' mess.

After a handshake, they were soon smiling and holding each other by the arm, before Trump guided Kim to the library where they held a meeting with only their interpreters. Trump had said on Saturday he would know within a minute of meeting Kim whether he would reach a deal.

MARKETS RISE

Inside, they sat alongside each other against a backdrop of North Korean and U.S. f**gs, with Kim beaming broadly as the U.S. president gave him a thumbs up.


The combatants of the 1950-53 Korean War are technically still at war, as the conflict, in which millions of people died, was concluded only with a truce.

After initial exchanges lasting around 40 minutes, Trump and Kim emerged, walking side-by-side through the colonnaded hotel before entering a meeting room, where they were joined by their most senior officials.

Kim was heard telling Trump through a t***slator: "I think the entire world is watching this moment. Many people in the world will think of this as a scene from a fantasy...science fiction movie."

Asked by a reporter how the meeting was going, Trump said: "Very good. Very, very good. Good relationship."

Kim also sounded positive about the prospects of peace.

"We overcame all kinds of scepticism and speculations about this summit and I believe that this is good for the peace," he said. "I believe this is a good prelude for peace."

The dollar jumped to a 3-week top on Tuesday and Asian shares rose on the news.

Trump was joined by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Adviser John Bolton, and John Kelly, White House Chief of Staff, for the expanded talks, while Kim's team included former military intelligence chief Kim Yong Chol, foreign minister Ri Yong Ho and Ri Su Yong, vice chairman of the ruling Workers' Party.

As the two leaders met, Singapore navy vessels, and air force Apache helicopters patrolled, while fighter jets and an Gulfstream 550 early warning aircraft circled.

Body language expert said both men tried to project command as they met, but also displayed signs of nerves.

After the meetings, the two teams and other senior officials met for a working lunch, where beef short ribs, sweet and sour pork and "Daegu Jormin", or Korean braised cod, were served for the main course, according to the menu. That was to be followed by dark chocolate tarts, pastries and vanilla ice cream for dessert. The North Korean leader's sister and close confidante Kim Yo Jong was among the lunch party.

As the cameras captured the moment, Trump quipped: "Very nice. Getting a good picture everyone, so we all look nice and handsome and thin...perfect".

In the hours before the summit began, Trump expressed optimism about prospects for the first-ever meeting of sitting U.S. and North Korean leaders, while Pompeo injected a note of caution whether Kim would prove to be sincere about his willingness to denuclearize.

Pompeo said the summit should set the framework for "the hard work that will follow", insisting that North Korea had to move toward complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization.

North Korea, however, has shown little appetite for surrendering nuclear weapons it considers vital to the survival of Kim's dynastic rule.

Sanctions on North Korea would remain in place until that happened, Pompeo said on Monday. "If diplomacy does not move in the right direction ... those measures will increase."

The White House said later that discussions with North Korea had moved "more quickly than expected" and Trump would leave Singapore on Tuesday night after the summit, rather than Wednesday, as scheduled earlier.

Kim is due to leave on Tuesday afternoon, a source involved in the planning of his visit has said.

Trump spoke to Moon and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, both key allies of Washington in the region, to discuss developments ahead of the summit.

"I too, got little sleep last night," Moon told his cabinet in Seoul as the summit began in Singapore.

"I truly hope it will be a successful summit that will open a new age for the two Koreas and the United States and bring us complete denuclearization and peace."

(Additional reporting by Dewey Sim, Aradhana Aravindan, Himani Sarkar, Miral Fahmy, John Geddie, Joyce Lee, Grace Lee, Matt Spetalnick and David Brunnstrom in Singapore and Christine Kim in Seoul; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Raju Gopalakrishnan)