When it happens. The president of the United States and dictator of north korea did meet. They did shake hands and they did sign this declaration at the end of historic meeting. What is in the declaration . That is what is in contention right now. This is something that no sitting u. S. President has ever done. Meet facetoface with a north Korean Leader. It is something each north Korean Leader kim jongun, his father and grandfather, all wanted, but kim jongun and President Trump the first to actually make it happen. The president said he forged a special bond with kim. He said kim loves his country very much. Remember, kim is a leader accused of Human Rights Violations crimes against his own people. Nevertheless, the president declared this meeting a Great Success and promised denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula quickly, very quickly. Joining me now is chief White House Correspondent jim acosta. He is at the marriott awaiting the News Conference. Jim, the president has to answer questions about what was achieved here. Yes, historic meeting and handshake. Unprecedented in many ways. Now the questions will be on what is being delivered. Reporter thats right, john. No question about it. History was made today. U. S. President met facetoface with dictator kim jongun. As you mentioned a few moments ago while statements made by the president and kim jongun and what they accomplished, is not clear. And in the long run, it results in north korea giving up Nuclear Weapons. As you heard throughout the day, i tried to ask the president several times is north korea giving up Nuclear Weapons. You heard the president saying that the process is getting under way very quickly. Of course, at the same time, it is not clear what was actually perceived by donald trump and kim jongun. In the statement they signed, it talks about a firm and commitment to denuclearization. It is not clear what kind of teeth the United States has in the agreement. I suspect it is one of the main questions for the president when he steps up to the podium in a few moments. I can imagine sitting behind me is chief of staff john kelly and secretary of state mike pompeo. It is interesting to find, john, how the president will talk about the agreement. All day long, it looked as if the president was off to a bromance with one of the most brutal people in the entire world. It is not sure if the president has a commitment for denuclearization or get the process started. This may be the beginning and certainly not the end, john. Jim acosta live at the conferen we will bring it to you live as soon as it happens. It is scheduled to begin moment momentarily. We have jeff zeleny and ambassador joseph yun. The special representative from north korean policy for years. Let me read you part of the joint statement. It says President Trump committed to provide security guarantees to the dprk and kim jongun reaffirmed commitment of denuclearization in the Korean Peninsula. Then the four points they all signed and agreed upon. Ambassador, you just told me you are surprised by this document. John, i am quite surprised. I thought there would be a lot more. You just mentioned the critical part of the short document. It doesnt say anything. It doesnt say anything that has been said before. Excuse me. And my question is, is there something more to it because it says nothing. Now, if we accept this im really looking forward to see the president tell us exactly what more there is because by itself we are nowhere mng any expectation or testing kim jonguns assertion that he has changed and they are looking for a path to denuclearization. It mentions nothing about denuclearization. Zero. Accept one phrase. We reaffirm. In other words, they said it before again and again. Again, this may be the difference between style and substance. The president may have to address this shortly at the News Conference. We will bring it to you live as soon as it happens. Jeff zeleny, we heard in the president s words. He seemed to be pleased. He used the word historic and talked about the new relationship. He did. He liked the image. Many people did not think he could pull this meeting off. Including his advisers. I think the next step of watching this is how is this relayed to the North Koreans on state media. How is it translated to them . Will it be the same . Is this comment that chairman kim said historic meetings and decided to leave the past behind and the world will see a major change. Is that quote going to be translated. I think how he describes this meeting is important. I think overall there is no question that kim jongun came to singapore and won big on an elevation standpoint. He was an equal to the president of the United States of america. I think we have to know that summits are not strategy. They are part of a strategy and we got nfused. Having the meeting without properly knowing the end goal in mind. To me, it happens when you have a summit is top down rather than built from bottom up. You could see throughout the process we kept on changing the goals. Initially, the goal was cdid. Complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization. D summits are not about process. It is an end goal in which you close everything down. Cvid not mentioned. Those words really deliberately left out. Jeff asked a question. I want your take on it. We saw from north korean media overnight of kim jongun Walking Around the city being presented as a celebrity. How will this be presented to the north Korean People . Jeff says it is a win for them. Now they are seeing kim jongun as an equal to the most powerful leader of the world. The president of the United States. You s that. North korea and u. S. I think we are aimed at getting into the north korean game and in the end keeping the weapons and saying listen, this is the fact of life. Im worried that were getting into this slippery slope where they do nothing and the next big question will be having been such good friends are we going to ease sanctions . That will be the next demand. You know . You say you are my friend. We are going to change. Why not sanctions . You saw the chemistry there. Im curious. Is there any diplomacy that can grow out of chemistry like this . Was this a show by two men who know the power of the images . I think both men had to say it was a success. For kim jongun, discuss was buying time and keeping his weapons for and making sure others eased on sanctions. For President Trump, success was getting something concrete on denuclearization. Were just not there. Lets see what he has to say. I dont see it put down on paper. We talked about this, ambassador. We did say having this meeting and dialogue and picture or series of six photo ops over the fivehour meeting is better than the rocket man rhetoric and fire and fury between the United States and north korea. It was improvement over that. It may have paused that dangerous situation. Is that enough . It seems you are saying now youre ppointed. Im disappointed. This was an opportunity. It was a chance toake a st. Take a step. A big step toward making the region safer by doing something about the Nuclear Weapons and the Delivery System as shown by icbms. It was not done that by the declaration. Maybe and again, if we do kickoff a process, maybe we will get there. Summits should be at the end of that, not the beginning. We did hear and saw the two leaders together. We heard very little from kim jongun ever. We did get a chance to hear from him today side by side with the president. Listen to what he said. S today we had historic meetig and decided to leave the past behind and we are about to sign the historic document. The world will see a major change. I would like to express my gratitude to President Trump to make this meeting happen. Thank you. Thank you very much. Again, thanking the u. S. President. That is something we have never seen before. Obviously there are next steps and future meetings. Mike pompeo already on the phone with japan and south korea. What else happens . We know in the onepage statement, not a communique, but statement. It says quickly they will have further discussions with mike pompeo and north korean official. We will see where that leads. My question is a couple of months ago, President Trump when he was at maralago, the japanese Prime Minister shinzo abe was visiting him. He said he would walk away from the deal or meeting with kim ngun if he did not take him seriously. Now this meeting has happened, is President Trump still willing to walk away from something or is he so invested in this now that he has to make this work . We heard senator mcconnell say you can get snookered when you want a meeting too much. Should he walk away . I dont know if he should walk away. You said he almost walked away when he said the meeting is off. This was about ten days ago. I can imagine him going back and reflecting on it and remember, his National Security adviser is john bolton who has always had real deep misgivings about doing this. Maybe reflecting on it. Maybe can change his mind. We saw from clearly the north korean determination that they are not about to give up Nuclear Weapons. This was made clear again today. When it dawns on him that maybe he is not going to get there, maybe he thatmay think again. Give us a sense of what was going on with the u. S. Working group which was led by the u. S. Ambassador to the philippines who has knowledge of the Korean Peninsula. His group met. I assume the u. S. Was trying to get something more solid than what we have here in the document . They were trying to get much more solid document. At least a commitment on language if nothing else that they will do cvid. They could not get that. In the end, it was the same phrase. Reaffirm. Denuclearization is about the whole peeps lKorean Peninsula. Not about us. Although there are no Nuclear Weapons in south korea. Jeff and i were eager to talk to you. No one knows this subject and area better than you do. One thing we wondered was how does china see this . Do you think china will continue its commitment to the sanctions that has imposed over the last several months or will they look at the meeting and say the u. S. And north korea are friendly and we are not as strict about them . I think your latter point is pretty much on the ball. China also wants to drag this out. There is no interest in china. North korea opening up and being very close to u. S. Or even south korea. I would think this is my suspici suspicion. China would be the first one to formally ask for sanctions to lifted. Before then, i think you see the implementation already on sanctions very, very lax. I think congress will have something to say about sanctions as well. One thing we see again and again from President Trump after a big event like this, he really is a close i have been told that President Trump is pawalking to the microphone. The president of the United States following the historic summit with north Korean Leader kim jongu tremendous 24 hours. Tremendous three months actually. This has been going on for quite a while. That was a tape we gave to chairman kim and his people and representatives. It captures a lot. That is a great place. Has the potential to be an incredible place between south korea and china. That has tremendous potential. I think he understands that. He wants to do whats right. Its my honor today to address the people of the world following the very historic summit with chairman kim jongun of north korea. Spent very intensive hours together. I think most of us have gotten the signed document or you will shortly. It is very comprehensive. Its going to happen. I stand before you as representative of the United States to deliver a message of hope and vision and message of peace. Let me begin by thanking our incredible host in singapore. Especially Prime Minister lee. Wi we send our warm wishes of everyone of singapore who really made this visit so important and so pleasant. Despite all of the work and long hours. I also want to thank president moon of south korea. He is working hard. In fact, ill speak to him right after were finish. Prime minister abe of japan. Friend of mine. Just left our country. He wants what is right for japan and for the world. Good man. And a very special person. President xi of china. He has really closed up that border. Maybe a little less the last couple of months. Thats okay. He really has. He is a terrific person and friend of mine. Really the great leader of his people. I want to thank them for their efforts to help us get to this very historic day. Most importantly, i want to thank chairman kim for taking the first bold step toward a bright new future for his people. Our unprecedented meeting, the first between an american president and leader of north korea. Proves that real change is indeed possible. My meeting with chairman kim was hone honest, direct and productive. We got to know each other well in a very confined period of time. Under very strong, strong circumstances. Were prepared to start a new history and were ready to write a new chapter between our nations. Nearly 70 years ago, think of that, 70 years ago, an extremely bloody conflict ravaged the Korean Peninsula. Countless people died in the conflict. Including tens of thousands of brave americans. Yet while the armistice was agreed to the war never ended to this day. Now we can have hope it will soon end and it soon will. The past does not have to define the future. Yesterdays conflict does not have to be tomorrows war. And as history has proven over and over again, adversaries can become friends. We can honor the sacrifice of our forefathers by replacing the horrors of battle with the blessings of peace. Thats what were doing and thats what we have done. Theres no limit to what north korea can achieve when it gives up its Nuclear Weapons a embraces commerce and engagement with the rest of the world. It really wants to evngagengage. Chairman kim has an opportunity like no other. To be remembered as the leader who ushered in a glorious new era of security and prosperity for his people. Chairman kim and i just signed a joint statement which he reaffirmed his unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization Korean Peninsula. We also agreed to vigorous negotiations to implement the agreement as soon as possible. He wants to do that. This is not the past. This is not another administration that never got it started. And therefore never got it done. Chairman kim says north korea is also destroy a major missile engine testing site. Thats not in your signed document. We agreed to that after the agreement was signed. Thats a big thing. The missiles they were testing. The site will be destroyed very soon. Today is the beginning of the arduous process. Our eyes are wide open. Peace is always worth the effort. Especially in this case. This should have been done years ago. This should have been resolved a long time ago. re doing it now. Chairman kim has the chance to seize an incredible future for his people. Anyone can make war, but only the most courageous can make peace. The current state of affairs not endure forever. People of north korea, north and south, are truly wonderful and gifted people. They share the same heritage and language and culture and destiny. To realize their amazing destiny and reunite their national family, the menace of Nuclear Weapons will now be removed. In the meantime, the sanctions will remain in effect. We dream of a future where all koreans can live together in harmony and where families are reunited and hopes are reborn and where the light of peace chases away the darkness of war. This Bright Future witn and this is what is happening. It is right there. It is within our reach. Its going to be there. It will happen. People thought this could never take place. It is now taking place. It is a very great day. Its a very great moment in the history of the world. Chairman kim is on his way back to north korea and i know for a fact that as soon as he arrives he will start a process that will make a lot of people very happy and very safe. So it is an honor to be with everybody today. The media. This is a big gathering of media, i will say. Makes me feel very uncomfortable. It is what it is. People understand that this is something very important to all of us, including yourselves and your families. Thank you for being here. Well take some questions. Oh, wow. Thats a lot of questions. Sure. Go ahead. Nbc. Thank you, mr. President. Two questions. First, the man you met today, kim jongun, as know has killed family memrs and starved his own people and responsible for the death of otto warmbier. Why are you so comfortable calling him very talented . He is very talented. Anybody that takes over a situation like he did at 26 years of age and is able to run it and run it tough. I dont say he nice o say anything a it. He ran it, few people at that age. You can take 1 out of 10,000 could not do it. Otto warmbier is a very special person and he will be for a long time in my life. His parents are good friends of mine. I think without otto this would not have happened. Something happened that day it was a terrible thing. It was brutal. A lot of people started to focus on what was going on, including north korea. I really think that otto is someone w