The distinctive signatures penned on an historic agreement between two of the world's most unorthodox leaders has proven to be a valuable insight into their personalities.
US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met in person for the first time on Tuesday (local time) in an historic summit in Singapore.
- The historic moment when Donald Trump met Kim Jong-Un
- North Koreans worry summit could distract from Kim's cruelty
At the end of the meeting they signed a document establishing new relations between their countries and committing to the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.
Images of their signatures have since been revealed on social media so Newshub dug deeper, speaking with handwriting specialist Mike Maran to try understand a little bit more about the leaders.
US President Donald Trump
Quick tempered, highly critical, the centre of attention and aggressive are just a few traits picked up from Mr Trump's bold signature, according to Mr Maran.
"The angular formation shows, basically, he thinks he is very important, is quick tempered, highly critical and tense," he said.
"He relies on his own opinion rather than taking advice from others and is an analytical thinker."
The angular formation of his signature combined with the large bunched letters show he loves being in the limelight or constantly being the centre of attention, Mr Maran said.
"The pressure of the pen on paper shows he is very dominating and the heavy pressure on the strokes shows he demands perfection from himself and others."
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un
By contrast, Kim Jong-un's signature shows his more reserved character while also giving us a glimpse into his highly creative and extravagant nature.
"The ascending strokes shows he is optimistic and currently in high spirits, and an intuitive thinker. His energy levels may change but due to the light pen pressure, they are currently high," Mr Maran said.
"He is extravagant in nature given the large spaces between the letters."
The large spacing gives away even more clues to his personality, including that he doesn't like other people.
"He may prefer others at a distance. I'd say he has a very tight circle of friends and is not easy to make friends with and prefers his own company."
It's unclear if Mr Kim's signature is written in Korean or English, for the leader educated in Switzerland and who learned English as a second language, but it looks to be "broken English", Mr Maran said.
"The illegibility of the signature shows he may avoid commitment but is highly observant."
The full picture
Mr Maran said the signatures only show a small insight into their personalities but still prove to be "quite interesting".
A whole text of writing would have to be examined in order to get a full view of the leaders' personalities, he said.
"When you compare Kim Jong-un to Donald Trump, they have totally different characteristics; how this transpires into politics I don't know," he said.
"Maybe Trump likes to act now whereas Kim likes to think about things first."
The agreement signed on Tuesday (NZ time) is not binding, and the promise of denuclearisation was a rehash of the Panmunjom Declaration signed by Mr Kim and South Korean president Moon Jae-in in April.
The four agreements stated in the document are:
- 1. The United States and the DPRK commit to establish new US-DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity.
- 2. The United States and the DPRK will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.
- 3. Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work towards complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.
- 4. The United States and the DPRK commit to recovering POW/MIA remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.
- At a press conference after the meeting, Mr Trump said that the late North Korea detainee Otto Warmbier "did not die in vain" because his death led to the US-North Korea talks.
Newshub.
