Trump, Kim praise historic summit

The two shook hands and exchanged words at 9:04 am after arriving at the hotel for the first summit between leaders of the two countries.

The two engaged in a private session, accompanied by only translators. Then an expanded session was held with the attendance of their advisors. A working lunch followed.

On Monday, diplomats from both countries continued their discussions whole day trying to narrow their differences on key issues.

The US has tamped down the previous high expectation of a swift denuclearization and instead talked about a process that will take time. But US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted on Monday that the ultimate goal is for a complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Pompeo said the US will offer security guarantees but gave no details. The DPRK has concerns over issues such as the signing of a peace treaty to end the 1950-1953 Korean War, the lift of economic sanctions, US troop reductions in South Korea and a cutting of US-South Korea joint military drills on the peninsula.

"The fact that is happening at all reflects both sides' interests in buying time, capping the risk of military conflict, and expanding the problem beyond the intractable symptom of denuclearization to the underlying mutual mistrust caused by seven decades of adversarial relations," said Scott Snyder, senior fellow for Korea studies and director of the program on US-Korea policy at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Kupchan, a professor at Georgetown University and a former Obama administration official, said he is cautiously hopeful that the summit will set the stage for a breakthrough.

"Bold moves of this sort are often needed to push long-standing rivalries toward rapprochement," he said.

"My main concern is that neither side has undertaken the necessary preparations for this meeting. I also worry that the volatile and unpredictable nature of both leaders could make a meaningful breakthrough difficult to sustain. Both Trump and Kim are known for changing their minds, so only time will tell whether any progress achieved at the summit is sustainable," said Kupchan, author of the book How Enemies Become Friends.

"My best guess is that the leaders will declare that they have reached a broad agreement to move forward toward a peace treaty, normalization, and denuclearization. They will then task their teams to turn their agreement into reality. That is when the hard work will begin — and the chances of failure go up significantly," he said.

Ian Bremmer, president and founder of Eurasia Group, said Trump has accomplished more on North Korea to date than any US president, citing the facts of China tightening sanctions, the suspension of DPRK missile and nuclear tests, the release of US prisoners and Kim’s reaching out to China, South Korea, Russia and US diplomatically.

"However the summit goes, that's progress," he said in a tweet on Tuesday.