Leaders arrive for U.s.-korea summit

Trump, Kim in Vietnam for nuclear talks

HANOI • Donald Trump landed in Vietnam’s capital on Air Force One Tuesday night for two days of talks to try to persuade Kim Jong Un, the North Korean dictator, to give up his nuclear arsenal.

In the morning, the normally chaotic streets of Hanoi ground to a halt when Kim’s convoy was met by flag-waving crowds as he arrived for the much-anticipated second round of denuclearization negotiations.

Curious onlookers mingled with television crews outside the luxurious Melia hotel as Kim was driven in a Mercedes-benz flanked by police outriders.

It was the last leg of Kim’s two-day odyssey, most of which was in a green bulletproof train, chugging 2,500 miles from Pyongyang through China to Hanoi.

The two leaders, who first met in Singapore last June, were to have a brief one-onone conversation Tuesday evening, followed by a dinner, at which they were to be accompanied by two guests and interpreters.

Their summit is expected to continue Wednesday, either at a French–colonial-style government guest house or at the five-star Metropole hotel.

The meeting has raised hopes of a breakthrough after months of stalled negotiations following their initial round of talks in June 2018.

The previous summit produced a vaguely worded declaration to work toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, but since then the two sides have failed to agree on how to do so.

While there is no real expectation that a deal will be struck this week, the leaders may agree to establish liaison offices in their respective countries and to declare a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War.

Sue Mi Terry, a former Korea analyst at the CIA who formerly worked at the National Security Council, noted that Trump at the Singapore summit last year made dramatic on-the-spot concessions to Kim that his own advisers had urged him against, including a halt on U.s.-south Korea military exercises.

Trump’s on-the-spot decisions are “truly the wild card,” she said.

Mike Pompeo, the U.S. secretary of state, lowered the bar for the summit on the weekend, by telling Fox News that further meetings could be needed.

“There may have to be another summit,” he said. “We may not get everything done this week. We hope we’ll make a substantial step along the way.”