Kim, Trump arrive in Hanoi for talks
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KIM Jong Un, leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and US President Donald Trump both arrived in Vietnam yesterday for their second summit.
Trump flew into Hanoi on Air Force One, touching down just before 9pm last night.
“Just arrived in Vietnam,” he wrote in a message on social network Twitter. “Thank you to all of the people for the great reception in Hanoi. Tremendous crowds, and so much love!”
Kim arrived by train early in the day after a three-day, 3,000-kilometer journey from his capital, Pyongyang, through China. He completed the last stretch from a border station to Hanoi by car.
The two leaders, who seemed to strike up a surprisingly warm relationship at their first summit in Singapore last June, will meet for a brief one-on-one conversation today, followed by a dinner, at which they will each be accompanied by two guests and interpreters, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.
They will meet again tomorrow, she said. Their talks come eight months after the historic summit in Singapore, the first between a sitting US president and a DPRK leader.
While the first meeting was all about breaking the ice after decades of war and bitter animosity between their countries, this time there will be pressure on both to move beyond the vaguely worded commitment they made in Singapore to work toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
In return, Kim would expect significant US concessions such as relief from punishing sanctions and a declaration that the 1950-53 Korean War is at last formally over.
Trump, landing in darkness, waved as he disembarked Air Force One and was met by senior Vietnamese and US officials.
Trump’s motorcade passed by crowds waving the flags of Vietnam, the United States and the DPRK on its way to the JW Marriott Hotel.
Earlier, Vietnamese officials were on hand to greet Kim at the station in Dong Dang town after he crossed the border from China. He got a red-carpet welcome with honor guard, military band and fluttering DPRK and Vietnamese flags.
Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, who has emerged as an important aide, arrived with him.
About a dozen bodyguards briefly ran alongside Kim’s car as he set off for the two-hour journey to Hanoi, smiling and waving to children lining the route.
Roads were closed with Vietnamese security forces in armored-personnel carriers guarding the route to the city’s Melia hotel.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also arrived yesterday and met Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh for talks.
Trump said before he left that he and Kim would have “a very tremendous summit.”
He stressed the benefits to the DPRK if it gave up its nuclear weapons.
“With complete Denuclearization, North Korea will rapidly become an Economic Powerhouse. Without it, just more of the same. Chairman Kim will make a wise decision!” Trump tweeted on Monday.
In a speech late on Sunday, Trump, however, appeared to play down the possibility of a major breakthrough, saying he would be happy as long as the DPRK maintained its pause on weapons testing.
“I’m not in a rush,” he said. “I just don’t want testing. As long as there’s no testing, we’re happy.”
The DPRK conducted its last nuclear test in September 2017 and its last intercontinental ballistic missile test in November 2017.
Analysts say the two leaders have to move beyond summit symbolism.
“The most basic yet urgent task is to come to a shared understanding of what denuclearization would entail,” said Gi-Wook Shin, director of Stanford’s Asia-Pacific Research Center.
“The ambiguity and obscurity of the term ‘denuclearization’ only exacerbates the skepticism about both the US and North Korean commitments to denuclearization,” he said.
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