HANOI, Vietnam — President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un arrived here Tuesday amid heavy security for their second summit, as the president seeks to negotiate the elusive terms for ending Pyongyang’s menacing pursuit of a nuclear weapons program.
Mr. Trump landed at Hanoi’s airport on Air Force One several hours after Mr. Kim arrived on a lengthy journey by armored train and limousine. Vietnamese soldiers closed about 100 miles of highway from the border with China to the capital city of Hanoi for the final leg of Mr. Kim’s trip.
Speculation is mounting about how much concrete progress the two leaders can make over the next two days, and what security and economic sweeteners Mr. Trump is willing to offer in order to get concrete pledges from Mr. Kim on how and when he will curb his nuclear and missile arsenals.
Among the possible items on the agenda: limited relief for the North on economic sanctions, new commitments to dismantle a key North Korean military research site in Yongbyon, and the possibility of the U.S. and North Korea establishing permanent “liaison offices” in their respective capitals in lieu of full diplomatic recognition.
Military vehicles and soldiers lined the streets around Mr. Kim’s hotel in Hanoi, while hundreds of Vietnamese and tourists strained behind metal security barriers to get a glimpse of Mr. Kim.
“Security will be at the maximum level,” Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Hoai Trung told reporters.
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Among the few to get through security was a couple from Hong Kong celebrating their 12th wedding anniversary. They had booked a room in Mr. Kim’s hotel months before it was selected as his temporary headquarters for the summit.
Just hours before Mr. Kim’s arrival, the media filing center set up by the White House in his hotel was relocated to another venue several blocks away. No official explanation was given, but security concerns were believed to be behind the move.
Domestic political concerns have followed Mr. Trump to Vietnam: He will be meeting with Mr. Kim even as his one-time attorney and “fixer” Michael Cohen is conducting three days of public and private testimony on Capitol Hill about his dealings with his former boss.
The city’s lampposts were adorned with the flags of the U.S., North Korea and Vietnam. Placards and billboards, some bearing the image of Communist Vietnam’s founder Ho Chi Minh, proclaimed the city’s role as host of the high-stakes meeting, a follow-up for the milestone first meeting of the two leaders in Singapore last summer.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met earlier Tuesday with Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh, and thanked him for the “remarkable work” in preparing for the summit.
“It’s a demonstration, I think, of the relationship between our two countries,” he said.
SEE ALSO: N. Korea state media quiet as Kim Jong-un makes splash in Hanoi
Mr. Kim, who arrived in Hanoi first, spent Tuesday traveling around the Vietnamese capital in his limousine. With a squad of bodyguards in tow, he visited sections of Hanoi, including his nation’s embassy where a loud cheer went up as he entered the compound, The Associated Press reported.
The route of Mr. Trump’s motorcade to his hotel was decorated with American, North Korean and Vietnamese flags, and adults and children peered out upper-floor windows holding up cellphones to capture his arrival, the AP reported.
“Tremendous crowds, and so much love!” Mr. Trump tweeted.
Seeking specifics
Widely criticized for the vagueness of the Singapore summit declaration, Mr. Trump and his advisers are seeking more clarity from the North Korean leader about the precise steps he’s willing to take to dismantle his weapons program.
Since Mr. Kim made the pledge last summer in Singapore, analysts there has been scant progress toward that goal, although a worrying string of nuclear tests and missile launches has been halted.
Mr. Kim is seeking relief from punishing economic sanctions organized by the U.S., and a possible declaration officially ending the Korean War, 65 years after the U.S. signed an armistice.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim will spend most of Wednesday meeting separately with Vietnamese leaders; the president is expected to sign a trade agreement with Vietnam.
North Korea’s state-owned KCNA reported that Mr. Kim has accepted an invitation from Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, to pay an “official goodwill visit” to the Vietnamese government.
Then Mr. Kim and Mr. Trump will see each other for the first time since their June summit, with each leader bringing two aides to a dinner Wednesday night that the White House is billing as a “social” event. Mr. Trump will be accompanied by Mr. Pompeo and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.
Mr. Pompeo met Tuesday in Hanoi with U.S. special envoy Stephen E. Biegun, who has been in intense pre-summit talks with North Korean officials in Vietnam since late last week.
The detailed talks of denuclearization between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim will take place Thursday. Mr. Trump in recent days has alternated between highlighting his close personal ties with the reclusive North Korean leader while lowering expectations of a breakthrough deal here leading to a rapid dismantling of the North’s nuclear programs.
Shared destiny
Lee Gee-dong, vice president of the South Korean government-run Institute for National Security Strategy in Seoul, told The Washington Times in an interview ahead of this week’s summit that he’s “cautiously optimistic” about the outcome because Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim have a “shared destiny” heading into their meeting.
“President Trump is in a political corner domestically right now and Kim Jong-un is in the same position himself only economically,” Mr. Lee said. “For Trump, he’s facing the upcoming U.S. presidential election next year. For Kim, next year marks the final year of his five-year economic plan for North Korea, when they will take stock of everything they’ve achieved economically over the last five years and Kim Jong-un has to show some results.”
While Mr. Trump has said he’s in “no rush” to wring concessions from Mr. Kim, Mr. Lee said stalled negotiations would be “too much of a political detriment for both of these leaders.”
“They have a need and a demand to keep this momentum for negotiations going and I believe that this will be the prevailing task the two leaders are confronted with,” Mr. Lee said. “This is the ring that binds these two leaders together, and that’s why I’m cautiously optimistic about the prospects for the summit.”
Jun Bong-geun, the head of security and unification studies at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy in Seoul, said in an interview that North Korea “wants two things from this summit.”
“One is real and tangible progress toward U.S.-[North Korean] diplomatic normalization,” said Mr. Jun, adding that this may mean Mr. Kim pushes in the summit for the opening of a U.S. diplomatic liaison office to open in Pyongyang.
“Secondly, economic benefits are what the North Koreans really want,” he said.
The talks will be closely watched in South Korea, which has taken the lead in reaching out to Pyongyang, and in China, North Korea’s main outside trading partner.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry Tuesday urged North Korea and the U.S. to “meet each other halfway” in the Vietnam talks, and urged the U.S. to respect the “legitimate concerns” of Pyongyang concerning its security.
Foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China hopes that the talks will achieve denuclearization and lasting peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in northeast Asia.
• This article was based in part on wire service reports.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
• Guy Taylor can be reached at gtaylor@washingtontimes.com.
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