Dandong: North Korea leader Kim Jong Un took the train Sunday to Vietnam for his second summit with President Donald Trump, state media confirmed.
Kim was accompanied by Kim Yong Chol, who has been a key negotiator in talks with the US, and Kim Yo Jong, the leader’s sister, the North’s official ‘Korean Central News Agency’ reported. TV footage and photos distributed by the agency showed Kim inspecting a guard of honour at the Pyongyang station before waving from the train.
Late Saturday, a reporter of this agency, saw a green-and-yellow train similar to one used in the past by Kim cross into the Chinese border city of Dandong via a bridge. The Trump-Kim meeting is slated for Wednesday and Thursday in Hanoi.
Their first summit last June in Singapore ended without substantive agreements on the North’s nuclear disarmament and triggered a months-long stalemate in negotiations as Washington and Pyongyang struggled with the sequencing of North Korea’s nuclear disarmament and the removal of US-led sanctions against the North.
Kim’s overseas travel plans are routinely kept secret. It could take more than two days for the train to travel thousands of kilometres through China to Vietnam.
In his upcoming meeting with Trump, experts say Kim will seek a US commitment for improved bilateral relations and partial sanctions relief while trying to minimise any concessions on his nuclear facilities and weapons.
While Kim wants to leverage his nuclear and missile programme for economic and security benefits, there continue to be doubts on whether he’s ready to fully deal away an arsenal that he may see as his strongest guarantee of survival.
While North Korea has repeatedly demanded that the United States take corresponding measures, including sanctions relief, Washington has called for more concrete steps from Pyongyang toward denuclearisation.
Hanoi has been gearing up for the summit with beefed-up security. Officials say the colonial-era Government Guest House in central Hanoi is expected to be the venue for the Trump-Kim meeting, with the nearby Metropole Hotel as a backup. Streets around the two places have been beautified with flowers and the flags of North Korea, the US and Vietnam.
AP