The President of United States (U.S.) – Donald Trump has announced that the second North Korea – U.S. Summit with the Supreme Leader of Korea – Kim Jong Un will take place in Hanoi, Vietnam, on February 27-28, 2019.
The Summit is a part of U.S. and North Korea’s commitment to denuclearisation. The U.S. wants that North Korea should make a full declaration of all its existing nuclear weapons facilities and commit to destroying them, under international supervision. However, North Korea has never said that it will do it.
The announcement came after the U.S. envoy for North Korea – Stephen Biegun returned from Pyongyang, where he met the Foreign Minister of North Korea – Kang Kyung-wha, and Seoul’s Chief Nuclear Envoy – Lee Do-hoon and discussed the preparations of the upcoming Summit.
During his 3 days visit, Biegun said that they want to improve ties with North Korea and encouraged Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons. He shared President Trump’s wish of putting an end to the 1950-53 Korean War, which concluded with a settlement, rather than a peace treaty.
Hanoi and Da Nang were the 2 Vietnamese cities, which were being considered for holding the Summit. The U.S. preferred Da Nang as it had already carried out a complete check there, during the recently held Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit. On the other hand, North Korea was keen on having the Summit at Hanoi as it has an Embassy there. Later, both countries mutually agreed for Hanoi.
Earlier this week, during his State of the Union address earlier this week, Trump mentioned the summit as a huge historic push for peace.
Speaking about his counterpart, Donald Trump said, “North Korea, under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, will become a great Economic Powerhouse. He may surprise some but he won’t surprise me, because I have gotten to know him & fully understand how capable he is. North Korea will become a different kind of Rocket – an Economic one!”
He added, “Our hostages have come home, nuclear testing has stopped and there has not been a missile launch in more than 15 months. If I had not been elected President of the United States, we would right now, in my opinion, be in a major war with North Korea.”
In the meantime, there is a report from the United Nations (U.N.) which says that the North Korean nuclear and missile program remains intact. It says that Korea is breaking international sanctions and there has been a tremendous increase in illegal ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products and coal. The international sanctions against North Korea are intended to limit its import and export abilities, thereby putting pressure on North Korea, to give up its nuclear ambitions.
For the records, the first North Korea–United States Summit was held in Singapore in June 2018 where both countries had met for the first time and committed to resolve the differences over U.S.’s demand of North Korea giving up a nuclear weapons that threatens the U.S.
