Gold Silver Reports (GSR) – Jiyeun Lee, Korea Economy Reporter – So what would North Korea gain from any agreement? It’s currently one of the world’s poorest nations — any progress at the summit might lead to much needed economic opportunities.
For his part, South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in has a plan that would involve the development of three economic belts that would link his country’s industrial heartland with the North and then with China and Russia.
Justin Sink, White House Reporter
A minor amendment to the sci-fi quote from earlier, via our poolers. The translator, interpreting for Trump as Kim spoke, said, “Many people in the world will think of this as a (inaudible) form of fantasy … from a science fiction movie.”
North Korea has vast mineral reserves, maybe worth $6 trillion, according to a 2013 estimate by the North Korea Resources Institute in Seoul. It’s also home to what might be the world’s single-biggest rare earth deposit, a crucial element for electronic car engines and many high-tech gadgets the South is so good at churning out.
Reopening rail links and roads could help the North make use of those assets — it could also use its minerals as collateral to get funding to develop its economy, according to Lee Yoon-sok, a researcher at the Korea Institute of Finance in Seoul.
Post Updated 09:13 AM
Justin Sink, White House Reporter
The video we were provided was via the Singapore government camera allowed into the lunch. There was also an official White House photographer – but no members of the U.S. media – in attendance. There have been grumblings throughout the media that the White House didn’t secure the customary full access for the American press. As with everything at today’s summit, the press access has been carefully negotiated for weeks.
Post Updated 10:02 AM
