U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday met face-to-face for the first time since their historic summit last year.
This time around, the heads of the two nuclear-armed nations are squaring off in Vietnam for two days of talks that are set to focus on many of the same issues they debated last June in Singapore.
Trump is pushing North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons as he dangles the prospect of an economic boost to the hermit nation. Kim wants to see sanctions eased without losing the strategic benefits of his weapons of mass destruction.
The summit kicked off with a brief one-on-one meeting between the two leaders at the historic Metropole hotel in Hanoi. Trump and Kim were then joined by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and two North Korean officials for what the White House deemed a “social dinner.
In a brief statement while seated next to Kim for a pre-dinner photo op, Trump said he hoped this week’s summit will be “equal or greater” in terms of results than last year’s meeting between the two leaders. He emphasized his personal connection to the autocratic leader, saying their relationship had made “the biggest progress.”
“Your country has tremendous economic potential — unbelievable, unlimited — and I think that you will have a tremendous future with your country, a great leader,” Trump said, looking directly at his North Korean counterpart. “I look forward to watching it happen and helping it to happen — and we will help it to happen.”
Speaking to reporters from the dinner table, the U.S. president said he and Kim have “a very special relationship.”
Earlier in the day, Trump met with Vietnam’s president and prime minister, and repeatedly suggested that North Korea could realize a “thriving” economy if only it plays ball with the U.S.
Most news from the U.S.-North Korea summit is likely to come on Thursday. The two sides are expected to hold meetings throughout the better part of that day, and some form of statement or signing is likely at the summit’s conclusion.Nuclear weapons
That was how Trump and Kim closed their summit in Singapore last June. The leaders held a signing ceremony for a declaration that said both sides would commit to establishing better relations and that North Korea “commits to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
Last year’s meeting marked the first in-person meeting between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean head of state.
Trump heralded that agreement as “very comprehensive,” but outside observers downplayed its importance because of a recurring diplomatic issue with Pyongyang: North Korea has a different definition for “denuclearization” than others.
BY CNBC NEWS
