President Trump and the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, are preparing to meet at their second nuclear summit. They’re planning to have a one-on-one discussion and a dinner, while they discuss the tough issues that Trump will bring up. After their long journeys, the leaders and their aides have finally reached Hanoi, Vietnam. They’ll be meeting with each other for two days to speak about the world’s biggest security issue: Kim’s nuclear program that directly threatens several targets all over the world. Even though many experts are a bit skeptical that Kim will give up any of his weapons, because he believes that they’re his greatest asset to continue his reign in North Korea, people were in a frenzy waiting for the summit to begin Wednesday morning.
Trump opened his visit by meeting with the president of Vietnam and the prime minister Wednesday morning. Official greetings with Kim Jong Un will lead the way to a short one-on-one discussion. Then the two leaders will have a social dinner with an extremely exclusive guest list. According to the White House, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney will be joining Trump at the dinner table. Kim Jong Un will also have two people with him, and there will be translators for both parties. The two leaders will have official meetings on Thursday, as well.
Kim arrived in Hanoi first, and he spent Tuesday driving around the capitol in his limo. Along with his bodyguards, Kim visited different areas of Hanoi. During the tour, Kim visited his nation’s embassy where cheers could be heard coming from the compound as he entered into the building. As the host of the summit, Vietnam is looking forward to showing off how many economic and development improvements they’ve made since the destruction during the Vietnam War. Vietnam doesn’t allow disagreements and they have a strong enough hand to ensure that both sides remain calm and agreeable.
Late Tuesday, Trump arrived in Vietnam, after a 20-hour trip that included stops to refuel in Qatar and England. While walking down a red carpet loaded with Vietnamese troops in fresh white uniforms, Trump shook the hands of the local dignitaries that were there to welcome him. “Tremendous crowds, and so much love!” President Trump tweeted about the experience.
Even though Kim’s journey was a shorter distance, it took a little longer than expected. Kim took an almost 70-hour train through southern China. Then, he traveled from a Vietnamese border town in his limo. Before he reached the border crossing at Dong Dang, Japanese TV networks showed footage of Kim taking a smoke break at a train station in China. A woman by his side, who appeared to be his sister Kim Yo Jong, held a crystal ashtray for him.
When Kim arrived in Hanoi, there were police, international journalists, and soldiers waiting for his arrival on the streets outside of the hotel he would be staying in. There were also hundreds of citizens eagerly waiting to see the leader of North Korea. While the flags of the countries fluttered in the rain, dozens of reporters flashed their cameras and citizens grabbed their phones to try to get a picture of Kim’s arrival. Local resident Van Dang Luu, who works in a bank nearby, spoke to a reporter about Kim, saying: “I like him. He is very young and he is very interesting. And he is very powerful. Trump is not young, but I think he is very powerful.”
Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump met last June for the first time in Singapore. Their first meeting was full of pageantry, but it was lacking any concrete statements that North Korea would give up its nuclear weapons. With great sacrifices to their economy, North Korea has spent decades building up its nuclear arsenal and there are few people who believe that they’ll freely give it away.
“We want denuclearization, and I think he’ll have a country that will set a lot of records for speed in terms of an economy,” Trump said about his goals for Kim and the U.S. before they leave the summit. Trump has praised Kim for putting a stop to the missile tests, and he’s apparently eased up on demanding a timeline for their disarmament. Kim is looking for relief from U.S. sanctions.
While President Trump was away on Tuesday, his former personal lawyer was testifying on Capitol Hill about Trump’s alleged acts of misconduct. The House was also expected to approve the legislation to block Trump from transferring billions of dollars to the wall he wants to build at the border. While he’s away, the House committee also voted to subpoena administration officials over the families who were separated at the border.
