Kim, Trump arrive in Hanoi for make-or-break summit
U.S. President Donald Trump disembarks from Air Force One at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on Tuesday, upon his arrival in Vietnam for a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. AFP-Yonhap
By Kim Yoo-chul
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, center, visits the North Korean embassy in the Vietnamese capital city of Hanoi, Tuesday evening, about four hours after he checked into the Melia Hanoi Hotel at 1:00 p.m. (KST). Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk
Kim Jong-un visits North Korean embassy in Hanoi
By Kim Yoo-chul, Lee Min-hyung
HANOI ― U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un arrived in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, Tuesday, ahead of their second summit scheduled for today and tomorrow.
Trump arrived at Noi Bai International Airport for the two days of meetings; while Kim checked into the Melia Hanoi Hotel around 1 p.m. (KST), after a 65-hour train ride that passed through southern China.
Four hours later at around 5:02 p.m. he left in an armored limousine to visit the North Korean Embassy, arriving a few minutes later. Kim, accompanied by his sister Kim Yo-jong, chief North Korean nuclear negotiator Kim Yong-chol and his chief of staff Kim Chang-son stayed for just under an hour.
The North Korean leader will be staying in the Presidential Suite on the 22nd floor of the hotel. The Melia has been labeled a security zone by the Vietnamese government with access to the 17th through 22nd floors denied.
The hotel had already been booked by the White House press corps, but minutes after Kim arrived at the Dong Dang Railway Station on the Vietnamese border, the government informed them it would house the North Korean leader. The journalists were relocated to a shared work space set up for visiting journalists at the Viet Xo Friendship Cultural Labour Palace, a giant Soviet-era edifice a few blocks from the Melia.
Officials gave no details about the summit, which the world is watching closely, or Kim's schedules during his stay in Vietnam, which may run through March 1.
According to multiple sources here, the North Korean leader will visit the famed Hanoi Opera House, near the Metropole Hotel, late Wednesday for a “social dinner” with Trump. Kim Chang-son previously visited and inspected the site with U.S. officials. The chief of staff has been here for some time and has inspected various venues.
Before the dinner, at which Trump and Kim will each be accompanied by two guests and interpreters, Kim Jong-un will have a brief “one-on-one conversation” with Trump, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters on Air Force One.
Trump and Kim plan to meet several times for advanced talks on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Meetings during the second day of the summit will be held at the Metropole Hotel, although officials there said they “weren't in a position” to comment on anything about the summit.
The motorcade transporting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un makes it way down a street in Hanoi, Vietnam, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. Kim is in town for a summit with President Donald Trump. AP-Yonhap
On March 1, the North Korea leader Kim is expected to visit the tomb of Ho Chi Minh, the founding father of Communist Vietnam. It's also possible he will visit a North Korean-founded kindergarten here, according to sources. In 1978, North Korea sponsored the establishment of the “Vietnam-North Korea Friendship Kindergarten.”
However, Kim is unlikely to inspect one of Samsung Electronics' advanced manufacturing factories here. An official at Cheong Wa Dae said a plan for the North Korean leader to visit a handset-manufacturing factory in northern Vietnam had been scrapped, without elaborating further.
Observers expect the two leaders will seek a consensus on a specific denuclearization roadmap for the North, this time, as Washington and Pyongyang held working- and high-level talks on this prior to the summit.
Delegations from the two sides engaged in more in-depth negotiations to narrow their differences on nuclear disarmament and break a deadlock over these.
Stephen Biegun, Trump's special envoy for North Korea, is still holding working-level negotiations with his North Korean counterpart Kim Hyok-chol.
The latest in a series of meetings came Monday when Biegun and Kim met for just half an hour.
Analysts say this signals that Washington and Pyongyang have come to a broad agreement on issues for discussion during the summit.
The heads of the working-level delegations are likely to report the results of their discussion to the high-level representatives, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the North's Kim Yong-chol, a close aide to Kim Jong-un.
Pompeo and his North Korean counterpart will then fine-tune differences on specific terms for a possible “Hanoi Declaration,” which will be signed by Trump and Kim on the second day of the summit.