US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would hold a two-day summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Feb. 27 and Feb. 28 in Vietnam to continue his efforts to persuade Kim to give up his nuclear weapons.
Trump has said his outreach to Kim and their first meeting in June last year in Singapore opened a path to peace.
However, there is not yet a concrete plan for how denuclearization could be implemented.
Denuclearizing North Korea is something that has eluded the US for more than two decades, since it was first learned that Pyongyang was close to acquiring the means to make nuclear weapons.
“As part of a bold new diplomacy, we continue our historic push for peace on the Korean Peninsula,” Trump said in his State of the Union address.
US Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told Congress last week that US intelligence officials do not believe Kim will eliminate his nuclear weapons or the capacity to build more because he believes they are key to the survival of the regime. Satellite video taken since the June summit has indicated North Korea is continuing to produce nuclear materials at its weapons factories.
Last year, North Korea released US detainees, suspended nuclear and long-range missile tests, and dismantled a nuclear test site and parts of a rocket launch facility without the presence of outside experts.
It has repeatedly demanded that the US reciprocate with measures such as sanctions relief, but Washington has called for North Korea to take steps such as providing a detailed account of its nuclear and missile facilities that would be inspected and dismantled under a potential deal.
At the second Trump-Kim summit, some experts say North Korea is likely to seek to trade the destruction of its main Yongbyon nuclear complex for a US promise to formally declare an end to the 1950 to 1953 Korean War, open a liaison office in Pyongyang and allow the North to resume some lucrative economic projects with South Korea.
“Our hostages have come home, nuclear testing has stopped and there has not been a missile launch in more than 15 months,” Trump said.
“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,” he said.
“Much work remains to be done, but my relationship with Kim Jong-un is a good one,” he said in announcing their second meeting.
Stephen Biegun, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s special representative for North Korea, is hopeful, but said that many issues make it especially complicated for the two nations to “embark on a diplomatic initiative of this magnitude.”
The Vietnamese city where the two leaders are to meet was not announced. However, Vietnam is keen to project itself on the world stage. It is a single-party communist state that boasts tight political control and a tough security apparatus similar to Singapore’s.
Where Singapore leans West, generally appreciative of US influence in Asia, Vietnam leans East. Even with its edgy relationship with China, it has a long fraternal history with Asia’s communist states. It is friendly ground for Kim and closer than Singapore.
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