All eyes on Trump-kim date in Vietnam
The two leaders will focus on denuclearisation, the end of Korean War among other issues
HANOI: After long journeys to Vietnam, US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are in place for their second summit to address perhaps the world’s biggest security challenge: Kim’s pursuit of a nuclear programme that stands on the verge of threatening targets around the planet.
Although many experts are sceptical Kim will give up the nuclear weapons he likely sees as his best guarantee of continued rule, there was a palpable, carnival-like excitement among many in Hanoi as the final preparations were made for the meeting. There were also huge traffic jams in the already congested streets. The two leaders are to meet over two days, first at dinner on Wednesday followed by meetings on Thursday.
Trump arrived late Tuesday in Air Force One after a flight that included refueling stops in England and Qatar. He shook hands with dignitaries on a red carpet that was flanked by members of the Vietnamese armed forces. The route to his hotel was decorated with American, North Korean and Vietnamese flags, and adults and children peered out upper floor windows holding upcellphonestocapturetrump’s arrival. “Tremendous crowds, and so much love!” the US president tweeted.
Kim’s journey to the summit, though shorter, was even more protracted. To get to Hanoi, he took a nearly 70-hour train ride through southern China and then travelled from a Vietnamese border town in his limousine. Hours ahead of his border crossing at Dong Dang, footage from Japanese TV network TBS showed Kim taking a pre-dawn smoke break at a train station in China, a woman who appeared to be his sister, Kim Yo Jong, holding a crystal ashtray at the ready.
In Hanoi, soldiers, police and international journalists thronged the streets outside his hotel and hundreds of eager citizens stood behind barricades hoping to see Kim as flags from the three countries fluttered in a chilly drizzle.