Trump-Kim Summit: President Trump Arrives In Vietnam for Second Meeting with Kim Jong-un
President Donald Trump has arrived in Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, ahead of his second summit with North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un.
Air Force One landed at Noi Bai airport hours after Kim Jon-un reached Hanoi by train and car.
The summit, which is due to take place between February 27 and 28, follows a historic first round of talks in Singapore in 2018.
Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un are expected to discuss progress towards ridding the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons.
Ceremonial guards had lined a red carpet laid out for Kim Jong-un as he arrived at Dong Dang border station on February 26. He was then driven to Hanoi, where heavy security and flag-waving crowds were waiting for him.
Kim Jong-un is thought to be travelling with his sister Kim Yo-jong and one of his key negotiators, former General Kim Yong-chol, both familiar faces from the previous summit with PresidentTrump.
The journey from Pyongyang to Hanoi took more than two days and traversed about 2,500 miles.
As Kim Jong-un’s train passed through China, roads were closed and train stations shut down. Chinese social media was abuzz with road closures, traffic congestion and delayed trains.
Vietnam’s Dong Dang station was also closed to the public ahead of his arrival.
Kim Jong-un is now being driven around 100 miles to Hanoi by car.
The North Korean leader chose to take the train as this is how his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, travelled when he went to Vietnam and Eastern Europe.
Kim Jong-un’s private green and yellow train has 21 bulletproof carriages and is luxurious, with plush pink leather sofas and conference rooms so the journey would not have been uncomfortable.
Air Force One left Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, landing in Hanoi on Tuesday night local time.
Details of their schedule are only just becoming clear. President Trump will meet Kim Jong-un for a brief one-on-one conversation on February 27 and then they will have dinner together with their advisers, according to White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders. On February 28, the leaders will meet for a series of back-and-forth meetings.
The Hanoi meeting is expected to build on the groundwork of what was achieved at the Singapore summit in June 2018.
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The first summit produced a vaguely worded agreement, with both leaders agreeing to work towards denuclearization – though it was never made clear what this would entail.
However, little diplomatic progress was made following that meeting.
This time round, both leaders will be very conscious that expectations will be high for an outcome that demonstrates tangible signs of progress.
However, President Trump appeared to be managing expectations ahead of the summit, saying he was in “no rush” to press for North Korea’s denuclearization.
He said: “I don’t want to rush anybody. I just don’t want testing. As long as there’s no testing, we’re happy.”
Vietnam has been chosen for many reasons. It has diplomatic relations with both the US and North Korea, despite once having been enemies with the US – and could be used by the US as an example of two countries working together and setting aside their past grievances.
Ideologically, both Vietnam and North Korea are communist countries – though Vietnam has rapidly developed since and become one of the fastest growing economies in Asia, all while the party there retains absolute power.