Talk about three being a crowd.

Xi might join Trump and Kim

The prospect of China's president Xi Jinping coming to Singapore on June 12, 2018 to meet with United States President Donald Trump and North Korea leader Kim Jong-un has been raised.

This is according to mainstream media reports in Singapore on May 11, which re-reported a Japanese newspaper, Mainichi Shimbun, that cited American diplomatic sources.

In the Friday report, Mainichi Shimbun quoted a senior international negotiator with the National Security Council saying that "there is a possibility" the leader of a third country may take part.

It is understood that this leader is Xi.

Trump spoke to Xi about Kim

The suggestion that the three leaders will descend upon Singapore at the same time is not without merit.

On Tuesday, May 8, Trump spoke to Xi about Kim's recent visit to China.

The Chinese president and North Korean leader met Monday and Tuesday, May 7 and 8, in China again in a second meeting.

This meeting followed Kim's first visit to Beijing in March.

However, as of Friday morning, there were no news reports on North Korean media outlets of the date and venue of Kim's meeting with Trump, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported.

Four-way talks

Previously, Kim and South Korean president Moon Jae-in issued a joint declaration to say that both sides aim to realise complete denuclearisation for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, at the historic inter-Korea summit on April 27.

They also agreed to pursue three-way talks involving the two Koreas and the US, or four-way talks involving the two Koreas, the US and China.

This was to enable a declaration to an end to the war.

Fighting in the Korean War had ended in 1953 with a ceasefire between the United States, China and North Korea, but has not been replaced by a peace treaty.

If Xi were to travel to Singapore, it will mean the leaders of the three signatories to the armistice will have gathered in the same country.

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