at a historic summit between the two leaders in singapore the two men signed a comprehensive joint document to that effect at their meeting just a short while ago the exact details of that joint tax have not yet been confirmed but president trump claims that a denuclearization process in north korea is due to begin shortly he also said he developed quote a very special bond with north korean leader kim jong un for his part kim claimed the world will see a major change after today's summit and that he and trump agreed to leave the past because time would you like me expect to learn more about the contents of their joint document shortly with president donald trump to address the press soon. trump held the signing of the declaration saying it would transform relations between the united states and north korea is proud of what took place today. i think our whole relationship with north korea and the korean for the chiller is

going to be very much different situation than it has in the past we both want to do something we both are going to do something we've developed a very special bond so. people are going to be very impressed people are going to be very happy and we're going to take care of a very big and very dangerous problem for the world and dreaming studios young cartel with the german marshall fund of the united states before we speak to you we're going to go to singapore where d.w. correspondent alexandra phenomena is standing by she's following the story for us of this historic summit alexandra kim and shrum have signed a document do we know what they've agreed to exactly. oh well this document seems to be comprehend and quite general so it's stating that both sides. have exchanged her opinions and

agreed to establish new you have creole a shame and agreed to build a lasting and robust peace regime on the korean peninsula what is interesting is that the document goes stating that to then try committed to provide security guarantees to the north korean regime of course at this point we don't know what kind of security guarantees they are we also know we only know that you have secretary of state from care said yesterday that the trumpet ministration is ready to provide north korea with you need security ensurance is something that would go beyond what has been provided in the past and then the document goes on saying that came jungle on a reaffirmed his firm and on wavering commitment to complete the nuclear is ation

of the korean peninsula however we have to ask that many experts are very skeptical and probably will be very skeptical seeing this document because of course a faster this will weigh sions it's not the things new north korea has promised or has been promising for quite a lot while now that they are going to give up their nuclear weapons program and actually. happened. alexandra perhaps high on expectations and hype and low on contacts and concrete policy trump you've been following him since his inauguration and covering him from washington would he be looking at this now as a successful trip a successful summit. oh yes i'm sure about that and he will be a labeling this summit of the great tremendous success and of course that's

something he was really looking forward to having that's why he agreed to they have this summit in the first place and in fact aware that actually no. no handouts for the documents have been distributed to the waiting press here is a telling because it shows that the president himself would like to talk here to the press to explain what has been achieved to viewing this summit so he doesn't want anyone to fail him the show because it is apparently a very important issue for him you mentioned that he is going to deem this is success probably how does all of this play to americans specifically his base are they liking what they're seeing today. well that of course we have to see when we are back and you ask but i can imagine that that's of course will be seen by his supporters in

a very positive way because once again they could then they can say that he's the president is a master deal maker the only president that really would be able to close a deal with north korea we have to add of course that president and a lot of pressure and the you asked there is russia risk in this to gauging going to gauge and going on looking into the alleged collusion between the trump counting and russia and having this summit or being able to claim the summit to be a success it is very important for president trump because he is this way can of course distract the attention from what is going on at home alexander you know very well trump once described him as the little rocket man it was reported that north korea called trump an old law lunatic in return but today they seem to be the best

of friends friendly handshake smiling faces is this a case of both sides saving face. well i would say that covering donald trump that is something that actually we see nice to see that this president doesn't care you know what he said yesterday what he did yesterday he is ready to change his position whenever he is convinced that that is the right thing to do and i think and this case it was the case that he saw that there is sort of outreach from the north koreans were that they are looking for improving relations or at least there are hoping for sanctions relief and that is something that he apparently so as a chance to get involved and to achieve something that has not been achieved by very abstract than t.w.

washington bureau chief alexandra phenomenon reporting for us from singapore covering this historic event thank you very much. joining me now in studio is young coord teller transatlantic fellow in the age of program at the german marshall fund of the united states thanks for staying around there being huge expectations prior to the summit we've seen several hours. and kim jong un first they had that historic handshake and then they had a working lunch together they signed a document has everything that we've seen today matched the expectations that we all had going into this yes to that degree it has because the expectation was that they would meet the expectations in the expert community were not necessarily that high and also the expectations i think from the u.s. administration were not overly high no one expected that kim jong il would lay down and say all of my nuclear weapons are yours you can do whatever you want now this is not the expectation expectation was that they would get to know each other and

this expectation has been that now the hype of the second round it that's a different story that's i think one that definitely plays to trump space in terms of denuclearization this is of course at the core of this discussion what is north korea looking at when they say denuclearize asia because we know that the definition of the americans are looking at is very very different for the north koreans denuclearization is just a step by step process and this is what you can also read in the in the activation now that they've signed together that they regard this as incremental steps step by step that they could take there's a word about it of being it being verifiable or it being irreversible so i think this is it shows us clearly that they talk about denuclearization when they talk about the nuclear station they mean the entire korean peninsula that's always the context in which they put it and they mean the u.s. should back off of their of their borders and of their security so they feel in circle by u.s. military presence in the region and that would for them that's also denuclearization respect here we just like to remind viewers that we're looking at

some live video of a press conference you can see journalists reporters gathered there some three thousand have converged in singapore for this is storage summit. we're all waiting for u.s. president donald trump to emerge to that podium where you can see the u.s. president logo at the podium to speak and address and potentially take questions from reporters we all have a lot of questions going into the summer and we still do because that document you saw a little bit earlier are there concrete policy plans in place or is this more of a generic nice to meet you let's see what happens next it's more the latter but it names might come peo in it as the lead person for the follow up process so it hands it back to the state department which is a good thing because we've seen the cia in the lead at various points when the palest of the cia so putting this to the state department means putting diplomats at play again which is probably a good sign right and in terms of. when we were talking about this earlier you

mentioned the troops and security assurances kind of security assurances might he ask for troop withdrawal is definitely in the books i mean troop withdrawal is something that kim jong un put cell at home easily it's something that the u.s. might be willing to give at least a certain level of troop reduction it's a symbolic symbolic reduction maybe first so there are seven there's wiggle room in this agreement which is probably a good saying because it does allow for a process to start. it yeah there a lot of the things that have been said in the in the agreement have been said before but this is a different later now it's kim jong il and he has another thirty five years or so of leadership probably ahead of him if he's they some power so something has to change inside north korea and he has that deliver and so he might be more willing to give than his predecessors his father and his grandfather in terms of what he's willing to give do you think what happened in libya with moammar gadhafi has made him a little bit gun shy perhaps in terms of trusting the americans or other western countries

that removing nuclear weapons from your country could potentially come back to haunt you yes but i think all three terran leaders worldwide have kind of seen that as a bad except for giving up their nuclear weapon weapons lately hasn't been such a good thing so he will make that of course the last step in any kind of negotiation that could come to pass but that was also something that was expected none of the people watching this really close they were expecting that he would give up his nuclear weapons fight now right then after fifteen minutes in a room with donald trump in terms of these two people being together in the same room trust of course the libyan example has probably caused a lot of distrust in terms of kim jong un and how he views this entire situation does he trust the americans and i don't think so but he doesn't need to at this point in time he needs to set his interest he needs to fulfill his agenda he has something that he wants to chief and that he wants to get out of this meeting and donald trump is an essential part of this but he doesn't need donald trump's he doesn't need to trust donald. on the other hand one could say he might need donald

trump's trust so he might need donald trump to trust him a little bit and that's something that he might be able to stage but i'm not a big fan of the trust discussion between the two at this point in time it can easily be said at this point and donald trump will talk about this trust being established by being five minutes in the room but just as something that needs to grow yes i mean it needs to grow it takes time to build and perhaps the second to demolish just to remind our viewers you're looking at live pictures on the other side of the screen there of reporters gathering to waiting for u.s. president donald trump to make an appearance to give a statement perhaps and even potentially answer some questions from reporters in the room questions that not only reporters of people watching around the world have this hour yeah i'm going to come back to you. there were north korean flags and american flags you see that in this picture here flying side by side even when i stood side by side has tromped given legitimacy to not only kim jong un but his regime yes he has and i have watched

a little bit of what happened on social media there have been some conversations about this diminishing the value of the american flag being next to a totalitarian flag like this and i think this is also very important for the conversation that we're having at the moment we were talking about trust and about legitimacy this is something that can show he can show the way he treats his own population whether he has trust with the whether he is willing and able to provide a prosperous future for twenty five million north koreans that are currently suffering under his repressive regime could human rights be something of the americans maybe not today because perhaps today is not the day to bring this up but human rights is an issue that observers around the world are touting i've been holding on to is this something that the americans could potentially bring up a later point in discussions to probably push them to make some changes within his own country for the millions of north koreans who are suffering now i would say human rights is an issue that you should always bring up and it's not an issue to be postponed for later i would have wished that this would be in the declaration because this is something that is important for the overall understanding of the

situation and it is not just a geo political situation to deal with these are twenty five million north koreans that are affected by this and making north korea an object of international relations and a little black box that you can deal with via kenya and it's not necessarily helpful i think this is a part of where the europeans have always played a role and said we should not dehumanised north korea both we need a face as well it has people that are living there it has people that want to make a living there now that are increasingly open to information that's coming in from the outside and able to make more informed choices maybe in the future or tell a fellow with the german marshall fund of the united states thank you now it started with insults this whole entire summit but an agreement to meet followed by a cancellation and then a restart let's have a look back at the unexpected series of events that led to this historic meeting. two unpredictable leaders two nations with

a hostile past the world watch as north korea's kim jong un and u.s. president donald trump shook hands in singapore a first for them and for any u.s. president and north korean leader it almost didn't happen trump called it off before saying it was back on now the adversaries who have threatened nuclear exchange are exchanging pleasantries. it will be particularly if. the. practices and prejudices worked against us but we overcame all of them and we are here today in. the face to face between the two men moved on to a team meeting and a working lunch the u.s. wants north korea's denuclearization north korea wants u.s. security guarantees commitments that have been promised and reneged on before. the

for closing the summit the leaders signed what trump called a comprehensive document a document that historians may look back on one day as a watershed in north korea u.s. relations. so with me in studio young coord tele fellow with the german marshall fund of the united states we're all watching this sort of the south koreans and the chinese let's talk about the south koreans first though what is their reaction to seeing all of this i think in comparison to what has happened last year potential threats of missiles flying over their head or right into their country this is an improvement of the situation this is all going also according to plan he has planned this early on in his in his government he wanted this to go this way. he has put all of his efforts into it and this is kind of his landmark policy he wants

this to be his legacy to create peace on the korean peninsula so the koreans or the south koreans are very involved in the process under moderately hopeful about what's going on i've seen a lot of posts on twitter about hope is better than you know maybe we can have a little bit of hope here it's been a disastrous situation for decades maybe this is actually bringing some change it's better than war at all times so this is the conversation that's going on even the younger generation that has been a bit more skeptical about being a fixation especially has joined into that conversation and the older generation that is definitely into the whole reunification process and wants that to happen and wants to see that happen in their lifetime is of course cheerful about every positive development that could take place now south koreans not only in south korea but around the world as you just mentioned have that hope but there are older people who say we've had hope before we've seen this before we've seen the north korean leader reach out and say i'm willing to denuclearize and nothing has come of that so as much as there's hope there's obviously a little bit of cynicism as well yes and

a lot of caution and i think that's well bar and at this moment to be very careful not to overrate the developments at the moment is a good development in a sense and it's a very initial step towards a more. a greater diplomatic process but is not this is not the breakthrough this is not the gordian knot that has been cut at this point in time where today we're seeing him. shakes and smiles the chinese are potentially watching i'm sure that they are we've been talking about the potential of the security assurances that washington could provide to pyongyang in return for complete denuclearize asia and whatever form that may take we don't know that right now what kind of reaction are the chinese having in watching all of this well that's hard to say because it's always hard to say we don't think it was hard to say what the what the thoughts are in beijing but from an analytical perspective if you look at the security situation in the region china is definitely trying at this point in time to push out the united states from its immediate neighborhood to to deny access to its to its

immediate close waters and it's doing that asymmetric metrically and militarily so having was korea less as us threat at its border where he has to come there they have to concentrate back now most of the very sophisticated and modern military equipment also tanks tank the tell us a look at the north korean border for some contingencies that could happen there this would potentially freeze some military capabilities here it would allow potentially also a connection from north korea building of and the closer use of russian port where you could station submarines this is all something that the chinese could be thinking about but they are also very careful about what this would in the end mean it could also mean that along this process something goes wrong and then john bolton is very close to donald trump and he might want regime change in the end after all and this with then lead to a completely different situation and even a military escalation so i think the chinese have very very careful times leadership is very very careful they have to make sure that they're part of the

conversation they have met tennessee to see the pain has met twice with kim jong un before he met with donald trump is make sure that there might be some economic engagement and they're the ones actually controlling the sanctions regime if they close the border if they close the economic relationships if they end the economic relationships that really hurts north korea but if they don't if they are. a little bit it gets a bit easier for north korea now in terms of what the north koreans want out of all of this we've spoken about this but this meeting is so historic that the fact that kim jong un gets to sit next to an american president and perhaps past presidents we wouldn't even be considering the fact that they would provide security assurances like troop withdrawal or other kinds of assurances and guarantees what does all of this need for kim jong un he's gotten a sit down face to face meeting with the sitting american president. he did and it does provide him with a huge amount of the debt a messy but we're not talking troop withdrawal now i want to make that very clear

that point at this at the moment because this is something that might be on the table later on but it's certainly not on the table at this point in time. and gets a huge degree of legitimacy especially for his domestic population he has to thin the for and he these pictures really help his domestic abuse his domestic legitimacy just to remind our viewers and the other side of the screen here you're seeing a very large press corps they are gathered here to wait for the u.s. president donald trump is expected to speak shortly about the document that he has signed with kim jong un and potentially give further information about this summit and what we can expect even moving forward if we are to look ahead now what can we expect next there's not been any confirmation about possible future meetings between not only trump and kim but perhaps between the delegations but what do you think could potentially happen what it says in the document that there will be a follow up process led by my in the state department i think that's the initial

way to go at this moment and this will it also talks about very quick quick steps that have to be taken so they will want to ride that wave while it's there and can do and will also want to write that way while it's there there is interest now in the korean peninsula that could be other you know international developments coming that could take the attention away from the peninsula and that's something that is not good for kim jong un because he needs attention for his policies to to to to yet to really materialize so this is something that probably will be with us for the next couple of weeks and months and maybe years he has a long term road we know that for sure despite what's all the historic summit that's happened here today young tell a fellow with the german marshall fund in the united states thank you very much. now north and south koreans have gone their separate ways since they are missed as ended the korean hostilities and nine hundred fifty three japanese photographer you sukey shiva has taken a series of portraits of people on both sides of the demarcation line similar

modi's depict similar lives but the surroundings prosperous south and province north could hardly seem more different the idea is simple and the results are astonishing. michel don't know what they're going to do you know every country has its own rules that people live by this just the way it is i don't want to judge what's right or what's wrong not to do when you're optimistic. or who is happy or unhappy. north korea on the left juxtaposed with south korea on the right so similar yet so different. single ethnicity of

people who speak the same language and share similar names but who have been divided for seventy years and lead completely different lives in two different societies what i know was have i go months ago does. he she does photo series is called border korea it explores the two separate realities on either side of the border formed by the thirty eighth parallel the pictures taken on a dozen trips to the south and seven to the north are simple and intimate. i mean that it is not this it's good timing for this exhibition given the current developments but i don't think i'd regard the pictures only in that context they wanted also you're ok now looking you are of course people are influenced by big political events. you don't they don't get a modest but these pictures show that people live life at their own pace that's what kind of editor the photos portray ordinary people at various stages of life

threatening psychic school children married couples all senior citizens i try to capture moments in a cycle you are in a lifetime brought it through the doors having to do this. the photographer worked under both systems and social backdrops. although he had much more difficulty in the north. he had left time on his hands there and was always monitored especially during interaction with his subject. home months i spotted this girl in a park she was roller blading i asked if i could photograph her and she said yes you. do then top dusan this. picture was paired with this teenager from south korea.

to first find his motifs in the north. the similarities are often striking although those portrayed sometimes disagree. he got up and someone netflix thought in no i was surprised that the girl on the right wasn't particularly enthusiastic about the north korean counterpart she just said so that's what she looks like ok what happened i'd expected her to say something like oh i'm with the same. maged but with totally different but she just didn't go that. took book. the project started in two thousand and nine as talks on north korea's nuclear program were collapsing. last year south korea elected a liberal president who has brought new momentum to relations between north and south korea. many see this as

a turning point. so they're. going to be confused by all the momentous changes underway and sort of to model them with me and was able to do this project because the two countries are so different to go if they grow closer my idea wouldn't work as well. to be honest i'm glad i managed to do it when i did it on their. mind yet they were cut out to you know the whole of the thing. all the unification between north and south korea is still hard to imagine he she does audience already has a hard time telling comes from. u.s. president donald trump and north korean leader kim jong un have committed to the complete denuclearize ation of the korean peninsula we saw that a few moments ago when they signed a document at

a historic summit between the two men the men signed a comprehensive joint document to data fact at their meeting just a short while ago as i said the exact details of what they've agreed to have not yet been confirmed but president trump claims that i denuclearize vision process in north korea is due to begin shortly he also said he developed well a very special bond with the north korean leader for his part kim jong un claimed the world will see a major change after today's summit and that he agreed to leave the prison camp would you like him to walk you expect to learn more about the details of their meeting shortly with president all chocked set to address the press very soon. now trump held the finding of that declaration saying it would transform relations between the united states and north korea proud of what took place today. i think our whole relationship with north korea and the korean for the chiller is it's

going to be very much different situation than it has in the past we both want to do something we both are going to do something and we have developed a very special bond so. people are going to be very impressed people are going to be very happy and we're going to take care of a very big and very dangerous problem for the world and a north korean leader kim jong un said of the document would lead to change between kong and washington today we had a historic meeting and decided to leave the past behind us we're about to sign a historic document the world will see a major change. for the. sole correspondent jason strother joins me now on the line jason we've been talking a lot about the reaction perhaps from the america and north koreans how are people in south korea reacting to developments in singapore. there is a mood of hope here in south korea i think no one expected there to be

a breakthrough in this summit today but i think for many people people that i've spoken with see this as the start of a process that would not only lead to the denuclearization of the peninsula but also perhaps the end of the korean war replacing that decades old armistice agreement with a permanent peace treaty. jason south korean president moon jay and said that he hardly slept the night before the summit in singapore do you think that his expectations for what was to unfold today have been matched. well he really hinges entire international reputation on this summit he has acted as the facilitator from the very start he had said not only to the south korean people but to the world that he could make the impossible happen that he could make the u.s. leader and the north korean leader sit down across.