The two men strode toward each other and shared the handshake beneath the white-washed walls of an upscale hotel in neutral Singapore, before sitting down for a half-day of meetings with ramifications for the world.
The US President predicted a "terrific relationship" with Kim. "We will have a terrific relationship, I have no doubt," Mr Trump said amid smiles and backslapping that belied the decades of tension and blood spilled between the two Cold War foes.
Asked by a reporter how the meeting was going, Mr Trump said: "Very good. Very, very good. Good relationship." The US President said he and Kim "will solve a big problem, a big dilemma... by working together, we will get it taken care of."
Donald Trump was the first to arrive at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa, a resort island off Singapore's port. Television images showed Kim Jong Un's motorcade arriving later (Reuters)
The motorcade of US President Donald Trump travels towards Sentosa for his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore (Reuters)
The meeting would have been unthinkable last year when tensions spiralled in the region over North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes as it raced towards the goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the US.
US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un walk to shake hands at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore (Reuters)
Although the outcome of the summit is uncertain, Mr Trump and Kim could agree on a declaration to end the 1950-53 Korean War, the fire in which his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, forged the North Korean state. The war was concluded with a truce, not a peace treaty, but a treaty will also have to include China, which was party to the armistice.
The young Kim is reviled as an international pariah over the 2017 murder in Malaysia of his half-brother, and the execution of hundreds of officials, including his uncle, for suspected disloyalty.
A successful summit could also herald momentous changes in the security landscape of northeast Asia, in a similar way to how the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 changed Europe.
A view looking toward Sentosa, the resort island where Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump met today (Reuters)
Japan will also be watching with ambivalence -- happy to see the sabre-rattling ending but worried its security might be sacrificed in Mr Trump's rush to neutralise the North Korean threat to the United States.
An employee of a foreign exchange trading company in Tokyo looks at the screens displaying live news of meeting between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump in Singapore (AFP)
North Korea, however, has shown little appetite for surrendering nuclear weapons it considers vital to the survival of Kim's dynastic rule.
Sanctions on North Korea would remain in place until that happened, Mr Pompeo said. "North Korea has previously confirmed to us its willingness to denuclearise and we are eager to see if those words prove sincere," he said.
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