President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un shook hands for the first time as both leaders kick-started their landmark summit in Singapore on Tuesday.

With this development, Trump and Kim have become the first sitting US president and North Korean leader to meet.Both leaders met at a luxury hotel in Singapore’s Sentosa island.

This comes only three months and three days after Trump accepted Kim’s invitation to talks, and nine months after the US president called him Little Rocket Man.

Kim had responded by calling the 72-year-old a ”mentally deranged dotard” as tensions on the Korean peninsula heightened amid Pyongyang’s nuclear tests.

Donald Trump: “I feel really great. We’re going to have a great discussion and I think tremendous success. It will be tremendously successful. And it’s my honour and we will have a terrific relationship I have no doubt.”

On his part, Kim, via translator, said, “Well it was not easy to get here. The past… and the old prejudices and practices worked as obstacles on our way forward. But we overcame all of them and we are here today.”