Trump and Kim sign historic statement at Singapore summit

President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un signed a joint statement in an important step towards the denuclearisation of North Korea at a summit in Singapore early on Tuesday.

Trump and Kim Jong-Un shook hands early on Tuesday morning at the start of a historic summit between the leaders of both nations.

President Trump said: "Everything has gone much better than anyone could think. We will have a wonderful relationship."

The North Korean leader said that although it had been difficult to establish first contact due to old prejudices it was “a good prelude to peace” and the world would see “a big change”.

During a lunch, both leaders signed a joint statement with four key points regarding the US and North Korean future relationship and the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. It read:

1. The United States and the DPRK commit to establish new U.S.-DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity.

2. The United States and the DPRK will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.

3. Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work towards complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

4. The United States and the DPRK commit to recovering POW/MIA remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.

This agreement was seen an important first step towards a future peace treaty, analysts said the positive outcome of the summit would relax investors after a tense G7 meeting over the weekend where Trump alienated many of the US's oldest allies.

Jasper Lawler at London Capital Group said: "Despite the prospect of worsening relations between the US and its closest allies and increased trade tensions following the strained G7 meeting, US indices closed higher as, lifted by sentiment ahead of the historic meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong Un".

However, some analysts thought it was somewhat vague and lacked detail. And despite Trump's comments that this was a historic first, it comes slowly on the heels of a joint declaration made on the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula back in 1992 during Bill Clinton's administration.

Market analyst Connor Campbell at Spreadex said investors were likely to have been left feeling "unimpressed by the flimsiness of the agreement".

After the summit, Trump gave a press conference where he said that Kim Jong-Un had given his "unwavering commitment" to denuclearisation and had agreed to destroy the country's major missle engine testing site. He also said the denuclearisation would be verified by the US.

When asked about the joint war games carried out by South Korea and the US he said he will commit to stopping the exercises: "I’d like to bring them home, but that’s not part of the equation right now. But we will be stopping the war games."

He also told abc News in an interview that he believes another summit will be needed and he would be happy to invite Kim Jong-Un to the White House in the future.