- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in Vietnam on Tuesday for a summit with US President Donald Trump.
- It is the second nuclear summit between the two world leaders.
- During their first summit in June 2018, they laid out an agreement for denuclearization and “lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.”
- Here’s how the second summit unfolded.
The two leaders’ first summit was in Singapore in June 2018.
Their first meeting was a ceremonial, historic affair filled with pomp and circumstance.
Trump and Kim laid out an agreement between the two countries:
- The United States and the DPRK commit to establish new US-DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity.
- The United States and the DPRK will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.
- Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
- The United States and the DPRK commit to recovering POW/MIA remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in Dong Dang, Vietnam, at the border of China, on Tuesday.
As Business Insider’s Alexandra Ma reported, Kim took a two-and-a-half day ride on an armored train to get to Vietnam.
Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, also traveled to Vietnam.
Kim Yo Jong has become “an important aide” to her brother. She serves as the vice department director of the Workers’ Party’s Central Committee.
From Dong Dang, Kim traveled to Hanoi.
Vietnam is a significant location for both North Korea and the United States.
North Korea provided both "material and personnel" to Vietnam during the Vietnam War against the United States, The New York Times reported, and there are gravestones in Vietnam (though their remains were repatriated) for North Korean pilots killed during the war.
For the US, Vietnam was the site of a long and ultimately failed war that ended with North Vietnam defeating the US backed south in 1975. Since 1995, the two countries have worked to normalize relations (and become healthy trade partners), which The Times noted could be a model for North Korea.
South Korea also normalized relations with Vietnam in 1992.
Trump arrived in Vietnam later that night, and went straight to the JW Marriott hotel where he is staying with members of his White House staff.
Source: Business Insider
Before getting to his meeting with Kim, Trump spent Wednesday morning in talks with the Vietnamese president and prime minister.
Trump tweeted of Vietnam on Tuesday: "Vietnam is thriving like few places on earth. North Korea would be the same, and very quickly, if it would denuclearize. 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!"
Vietnam is thriving like few places on earth. North Korea would be the same, and very quickly, if it would denuclearize. 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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 27, 2019
School children waving American and Vietnamese flags greeted Trump at the Presidential Palace.
Trump got a similarly warm display when he went to the Office of Government Hall for a meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
At dusk, Trump headed to the Hotel Metropole to meet with Kim.
A large crowd was assembled outside the hotel to greet the two leaders.
Trump and Kim shook hands and then posed for pictures in front of a display of American and North Korean flags.
"I think your country has tremendous economic potential," Trump told Kim during the public meeting.
Trump continued: "I think you will have a tremendous future with your country - a great leader. And I look forward to watching it happen and helping it to happen."
While Trump answered some questions from the media during the photo opportunity, Kim did not. He did, however, speak to Trump through an interpreter.
Source: The New York Times
Trump and Kim then sat down to dinner with top aids at the five-star hotel.
"A lot of things are going to be solved, I hope," Trump said at the start of the dinner. "And I think it'll lead to wonderful - it will lead to, really, a wonderful situation long term."
Kim praised Trump at the dinner for his "courageous decision" to start a conversation between their two countries.
The US hopes to secure a commitment from North Korea to dismantle at least some of its nuclear weapons, while Kim wants a formal declaration ending the Korean War and the loosening of economic sanctions against his country.
The menu for the dinner included king crab, Wagyu beef and lotus seeds, according to a copy of the menu seen by pool journalists.
The White House banned four journalists from covering the dinner because questions that were shouted during Trump and Kim's initial meeting in front of the media.
The banned reporters were from the Associated Press, Bloomberg News, the Los Angeles Times and Reuters.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said they were not allowed into the dinner because of "sensitivities over shouted questions in the previous stays."
The Washington Post reported that one of the questions that was asked was in connection to the impending Congressional testimony of Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen.
Trump and Kim will meet again on Thursday.
Neither country has released a schedule for Thursday yet.
But the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that the two leaders would meet as many as five times during their trip, which leaves plenty of time together for Thursday, the final day of the nuclear summit.