Trump, Kim start Hanoi meet on optimistic note
Kim says meeting comes ‘despite hostile old practices’
HANOI: President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un on Wednesday sounded an optimistic note at the start of their second set of face-to-face meetings, as the US leader sought to advance nuclear talks that have largely stalled since their first summit in June.
The two leaders shook hands and made brief remarks before a one-on-one meeting in Hanoi that kicked off their symbolismrich follow-up to the unprecedented Singapore summit. They dined at the century-old Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi along with a handful of top officials including secretary of state Michael Pompeo and Kim’s No 2, Kim Yong Chol.
Sitting next to Kim, Trump called their first summit in Singapore “very successful” and said, “I think this one will hopefully be equal or greater.” He said North Korea “has tremendous economic potential. I look forward to watching it happen”.
Kim smiled throughout Trump’s remarks, and said the leaders are meeting despite “eyes of distrust and misunderstanding everywhere and hostile old practices” that have tried to stop them since their last meeting. “I am certain that the great outcome that everyone is glad to see will be made, and I will do my best to make it happen,” Kim, wearing an all-black Mao suit, said in Korean. Later, at dinner, Kim said that he and Trump “exchanged very interesting dialogue for about 30 minutes.”
More substantial announcements are expected Thursday, when Trump hopes to build on their broad agreement last year to “work toward complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.”
While Kim has refrained from weapons testing since launching a missile in 2017, he’s made no commitments to disclose or dismantle his nuclear arsenal - and appears to have expanded it.
Trump dismissed speculation about the Hanoi summit’s outcomes on Wednesday, while at the same time hinting he might involve regional allies and adversaries in the nuclear talks.
North Korea participated in so-called six-party talks with those countries and the US after withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty in 2003. But Pyongyang abandoned the talks in 2009 and resumed uranium enrichment.