Trump says 'my friend Kim' has great opportunity at second summit
HANOI (Reuters) - US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meet on Wednesday for their second summit, betting their personal relationship can break a stalemate over the North’s nuclear weapons and end more than 70 years of hostility.
Despite little progress toward his stated goal of ridding North Korea of its nuclear weapons since first meeting Kim in Singapore last year, Trump has said he is fully committed to his personal diplomacy with Kim.
Trump said late last year he and Kim “fell in love”, and on the eve of his departure for the second summit said they had developed “a very, very good relationship”.
Whether the bonhomie can move them beyond summit pageantry to substantive progress on eliminating Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal that threatens the United States is the question that will dominate their talks in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.
“Vietnam is thriving like few places on earth. North Korea would be the same, and very quickly, if it would denuclearize,” Trump said on Twitter.
“The potential is AWESOME, a great opportunity, like almost none other in history, for my friend Kim Jong Un. We will know fairly soon - Very Interesting!”
Trump and Kim will meet at the Metropole hotel at 6:30 p.m. (1130 GMT) for a 20-minute, one-on-one chat followed by a dinner with aides, the White House said.
The elegant interior of the 118-year-old Metropole thronged with security and diplomatic personnel from both sides - some snapping pictures - as hotel staff made final preparations.
On Thursday, the two leaders will hold “a series of back and forth” meetings, the White House said. The venue for those meetings has not been announced.
In Singapore, they pledged to work toward denuclearisation and permanent peace on the Korean peninsula. North and South Korea have been technically still at war since their 1950-53 conflict, with the Americans backing the South, ended in a truce, not a treaty.
The Singapore meeting - the first between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader - ended with great fanfare but little substance over how to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
Both sides are likely to feel pressure to agree on specific measures this time - what concrete steps North Korea will take to give up the weapons, and what the United States will offer in return.
While the United States is demanding North Korea give up all of its nuclear and missile programmes, the North wants to see the removal of a U.S. nuclear umbrella for South Korea.
U.S. intelligence officials have said there is no sign North Korea will ever give up its entire arsenal of cherished nuclear weapons, which it sees as its guarantee of national security, while analysts say it won’t commit to significant disarmament unless punishing U.S.-led economic sanctions are eased.
Trump has held out the prospect of easing them if North Korea does something “meaningful”.
