North Korea has tremendous economic potential: Trump
U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un following a meeting at the Sofitel Legend Metropole hotel in Hanoi Feb. 27, 2019. AFP-Yonhap
By Kim Yoo-chul
By Kim Yoo-chul, Lee Min-hyung
HANOI ― Washington is ready to help Pyongyang develop its economy, U.S. President Donald Trump told North Korean leader Kim Jong-un when they met Wednesday at the start of their two-day summit in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.
“I think that your country has tremendous economic potential, unbelievable, unlimited,” Trump said. “And I think that you will have a tremendous future with your country, a great leader. I look forward to watching it happen and helping it to happen. And we will help it to happen.”
Asked by a reporter if the two sides might formally end the Korean War, Trump said, “We will see.”
Kim said he was sure they would produce a “great outcome which everyone welcomes” in Hanoi.
The leaders then had a one-on-one meeting for 20 minutes before dining together. They will have extended summit talks today and possibly adopt a joint statement that may include a roadmap for the North's denuclearization.
Prior to this, Kim and Trump shook hands and posed in front of each of their national flags smiling as journalists took photos.
Trump said he looked forward to a very successful summit.
“We had a very successful first summit. Some people wanted to see it go quicker but I was very happy with how we are doing,” he said.
Kim said, “There's a look of distrust and misunderstanding which hindered our journey to the destination. Hostile things tried to block the pathway that we want to go further. But we have been able to overcome all such obstacles and we meet again in Hanoi.”
In this image from video, U.S. President Donald Trump has dinner with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the Metropole Hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam, Wednesday night. AP-Yonhap
Amid high intrigue, the two leaders arrived at dusk at the hotel in separate motorcades. At around 8:20 p.m., Trump's motorcade and Vietnamese police passed through hundreds of citizens and journalists crowded near the hotel waiting the start of the summit.
The Vietnamese government installed steel barriers around the hotel to control traffic, with local police marshaling the crowd to keep them from getting in the way of Trump's route to the venue for the meeting with Kim.
After briefly chatting, the two leaders huddled in a room in their first face-to-face meeting since their summit in Singapore eight months ago. Only interpreters were present.
The dinner started at 8:40 p.m. and lasted for two hours. Trump was accompanied by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. Kim was accompanied by his chief of staff Kim Yong-chol and Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho.
The latest encounter comes after the two embarked on another round of high-stakes nuclear diplomacy.
“We're going to have a very busy day on February 28. Our relationship is a very special relationship,” Trump joked during the dinner with Kim as a limited pool of photographers took pictures.
The motorcade of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un leaves following his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump during the second U.S.-North Korea summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, February 27, 2019. Reuters-Yonhap
Before his departure to attend the dinner, the North Korean leader stayed in the presidential suite on the 22nd floor of the Hanoi Melia Hotel.
Senior North Korean officials returned to the hotel late Wednesday after traveling to the northern industrial city of Haiphong and UNESCO-listed Ha Long Bay.
The North's state-run Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) did not detail Kim's travel route before his dinner with Trump. But it did say that Kim would make an official “friendly visit” to Vietnam for two days from Friday, a day after he wraps up the two-day summit with Trump.
Taking into account his days-long post-summit itinerary, Kim intentionally didn't have any plans for Wednesday, according to sources. The KCNA said the North Korean leader received reports at his hotel from the regime's working-level pre-summit delegation, Tuesday.
A Vietnamese traffic police salutes at a motorcade transporting US President Donald Trump leaving the Sofitel Legend Metropole hotel in Hanoi on February 27, 2019, after a dinner with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. AFP-Yonhap
Unlike Kim, Trump, who arrived in the Vietnamese capital city that night after a day-long flight from Washington, spent his time meeting with Vietnamese officials.
At around 1 p.m., Wednesday, he visited Vietnamese President Nguyen Phu Trong at the Presidential Palace, where they presided over an airlines trade agreement.
Then, Trump held a meeting with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the Office of Government Hall. During the meetings, Trump highlighted his continued pitch for the North Korean leader to dismantle his nuclear program in exchange for possible economic support to help the impoverished North Korea improve its economy.
A journalist from the United States in the country for the summit said the bright economic boom in North Korea was a “core point” for Trump at this summit. “Conditions and prerequisites were widely opened. It will be a decision by Kim Jong-un,” he said.
Speaking during a meeting with the prime minister, Trump said he believes Kim “wants to do something great” that “will be on a par” with Vietnam's economic transformation to “make North Korea into a great economic power.”
The Vietnam summit is expected to focus on discussing a tentative deal between the two countries. This could potentially include signing a peace declaration to politically and symbolically end the Korean War, or a promise from Kim to dismantle key nuclear facilities in return for some initial-level of economic sanctions relief from the United States.