Kim and Trump arrive in Vietnam

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam on Tuesday after traveling for three days through China in his armored train from the North Korean border. Hours later, US President Donald Trump arrived from Washington. 

They are expected to kick-off the highly anticipated two-day summit with private talks and an informal dinner on Wednesday evening. This is the second-ever meeting between Trump and Kim after their summit in Singapore last June.

After leaving his train at the Vietnamese border town of Dong Dang, the North Korean leader was welcomed by Vo Van Thuong, secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam's Central Committee, and Mai Tien Dung, minister of the Government Office. A crowd of onlookers assembled near the train station to see Kim arrive, waving North Korean flags and bouquets of flowers.

Kim traveled the rest of the way to Hanoi in a car.
Read more: 2019: Will there be a breakthrough on the Korean Peninsula?

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has also arrived in Vietnam to attend the meetings. Pompeo has been designated top envoy to North Korea, with a mandate to improve ties with Pyongyang. He has traveled to North Korea several times in recent months for ongoing negotiations to get the regime to end its nuclear program.

Read more: What's in the document that Kim and Trump signed?

Denuclearization goal

This week's second summit serves as the follow-up to the historic talks between Trump and Kim in Singapore, which marked the first time a sitting US president met with a leader of Communist-ruled North Korea. There, Kim had emphasized his nation's readiness for "complete denuclearization."

But to date, no concrete commitments have been made detailing how Pyongyang would go about dismantling its nuclear arsenal.

Trump reiterated his North Korea policy goals shortly before boarding Air Force One to fly to Vietnam on Monday. "We want denuclearization, and I think he'll have a country that will set a lot of records for speed in terms of an economy."

jcg,dj/amp (AP, dpa)

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