SINGAPORE, June 11 (Xinhua) -- The much-anticipated meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is to start here on Tuesday.
The following is a list of major interactions between the United States and the DPRK over past few years.
On June 1, 2018, senior DPRK official Kim Yong Chol traveled to Washington and delivered a letter to Trump from the DPRK leader. Trump announced that the Singapore summit on June 12 would be held as originally scheduled after an almost two-hour meeting in the White House with the envoy.
On May 27, 2018, U.S. diplomat Sung Kim went to the DPRK side of the Panmunjom truce village for pre-summit negotiations with DPRK Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui to prepare for Trump-Kim meeting.
On May 24, 2018, the DPRK dismantled the Punggye-ri nuclear test ground in front of foreign journalists, but Trump announced hours later that he's pulling out of the summit, citing some DPRK official's "tremendous anger and open hostility" remarks towards the United States.
On May 16, 2018, the DPRK said it would suspend high-level talks with South Korea infinitely and threatened to withdraw from the scheduled meeting with the United States in protest over U.S.-South Korean military exercises.
On May 10, 2018, Trump tweeted that his meeting with Kim Jong Un will be in Singapore on June 12.
On May 9, 2018, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made another visit to Pyongyang to prepare for the Trump-Kim summit. The DPRK released three Americans who had been imprisoned after Pompeo's visit.
On April 9, 2018, Trump said that he expected to meet the DPRK leader in May or early June. On April 18, Trump confirmed that then CIA chief Mike Pompeo met with Kim Jong Un in a secret visit to Pyongyang in the previous week.
On March 8, 2018, Chung Eui-yong, South Korea's top national security adviser, said in a statement that he told Trump about Kim's eagerness to meet the U.S. president as soon as possible, and Trump told Chung that he would meet the DPRK leader by May to achieve permanent denuclearization.
On Nov. 20, 2017, Trump designated the DPRK as a "state sponsor of terrorism," vowing to slap sanctions on the Asian nation. On Nov. 22, the DPRK slammed the U.S. move as a serious provocation and a violent infringement upon the country's dignity.
On Sept. 3, 2017, the DPRK conducted its sixth nuclear test. One day after the test, the United States distributed a draft resolution on DPRK sanctions to UN Security Council members for discussions. On Sept. 11, the Security Council unanimously adopted the resolution to impose fresh sanctions on the DPRK, targeting the country's oil imports and textile exports.
On July 6, 2016, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Kim Jong Un and other top DPRK officials over alleged human rights abuses. In response, the DPRK urged the United States to immediately and unconditionally withdraw the sanctions, and if not, the DPRK will cut off all channels of diplomatic contact with the Untied States.
On Jan. 9, 2015, the DPRK made a proposal to the U.S. side that Pyongyang will temporarily suspend nuclear test if the United States agrees to temporarily halt joint military exercises with South Korea for the year 2015, according to the DPRK's official news agency KCNA. Then U.S. State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki refused the offer on Jan. 10.
On April 2, 2013, the DPRK General Department of Atomic Energy said the country will "readjust" and "restart" all nuclear facilities at the Nyongbyon nuclear complex, including a uranium enrichment plant and a 5MW graphite moderated reactor. On the same day, then U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry described the DPRK's move as provocative, dangerous and reckless and said the America will not accept the DPRK as a nuclear state.
On Dec. 12, 2012, the DPRK announced that it successfully fired off a long-range rocket mounted with a satellite -- the second version of satellite Kwangmyongsong-3. White House called the DPRK's move as "a provocative act that threatens regional peace and security and undermines the global nonproliferation regime."
On June 18, 2012, then U.S. President Barack Obama decided to extend for one year the sanctions against the DPRK, citing the "unusual and extraordinary threat" posed by the Asian country to U.S. national security, foreign policy and economy.
On April 13, 2012, the DPRK launched the Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite but the satellite failed to enter its preset orbit. The White House Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes then said that the United States would not go forward with the food aid deal with the DPRK due to Pyongyang's failed satellite launch. On April 17, the DPRK said it wasn't obliged to a U.S.-DPRK agreement and would continue to launch satellites.
On Feb. 23-24, 2012, the United States and the DPRK reached an agreement during their high-level talks held in Beijing. In the agreement, the DPRK agreed to impose a moratorium on nuclear tests and long-range missile launches and allow international nuclear inspectors to return to the country. In return, the United States agreed to provide the country with 240,000 tons of food aid.
