China's President Xi Jinping may also travel to Singapore when Trump meets Kim: report

[TOKYO] A Japanese newspaper has raised the possibility of Chinese President Xi Jinping also travelling to Singapore when US President Donald Trump meets North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for an unprecedented summit on June 12.

The Mainichi Shimbun's Washington-based correspondent cited American diplomatic sources as saying there was a chance that Mr Xi may meet Mr Trump and Mr Kim in Singapore.

In the report published on Friday, the Mainichi quoted a senior international negotiator with the National Security Council as telling reporters that "there is a possibility" the leader of a third country may take part.

Mr Trump announced via a tweet on Thursday that his summit with Mr Kim will be held on June 12 in Singapore.

As of Friday morning, there were no news reports on North Korean media outlets of the date and venue of Mr Kim's meeting with Mr Trump, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported.

At the historic inter-Korea summit on April 27, Mr Kim and South Korean president Moon Jae In issued a joint declaration to say that both sides share the "common goal of realising, through complete denuclearisation, a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula".

They also agreed to pursue three-way talks involving the two Koreas and the US, or four-way talks involving the two Koreas, the US and China, with a view to declaring an end to the war and establishing a permanent and solid peace regime.

Fighting in the Korean War had ended in 1953 with a ceasefire between the United States (representing the United Nations Command), China and North Korea, which has to date not been replaced by a peace treaty.

The Mainichi Shimbun report pointed out that if Mr Xi were to travel to Singapore, it will mean the leaders of the three signatories to the armistice will have gathered in the same country.

THE STRAITS TIMES