The first meeting between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader, at the Capella hotel in Sentosa, ended with the two leaders signing a joint statement on four points of agreement.

Ms Sarah Teo, associate research fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), believes Mr Kim has come away from the summit gaining much more.

She told The New Paper: “I think he has successfully shown that he can carry himself as well as, or at least as an equal to, the leader of the superpower of the world, the US.

“I think that is part of his larger goal of bringing North Korea into the international community, to be recognised as a normal legitimate state, because I think if the focus of economic reform continues for North Korea, that is one of the routes they can use to get there.”