North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Feb. 26 waves to welcoming crowds after arriving at Dong Dang Station in the Sino-Vietnamese border town of Dong Dang in Vietnam’s Lang Song province.
By Park Gil-ja and Yoon Sojung
Photos = Yonhap News
A day ahead of his historic second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam, on the morning of Feb. 26.
From Feb. 27, Kim will hold two days of talks with Trump, who will arrive in Hanoi around 8:30 p.m. that day.
As the countdown for the summit is about to begin, global media outlets are closely watching Vietnam. The meeting is expected to have a crucial impact on the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia, with eight months having passed since the first historic summit between Pyeongyang and Washington on June 12, 2018, in Singapore.
Kim and his delegation arrived via train at Dong Dang Station in Vietnam's Lang Song province at 8:13 a.m. after crossing the Chinese-Vietnamese border through the shortest route. The trip took 65 hours and 40 minutes after Kim's personal train departed from Pyeongyang Station at 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 23.
Kim got in a limousine and headed to Hanoi after attending a welcoming event hosted by the Vietnamese government. His trip was concurrently an official friendly visit to Vietnam on the occasion of the upcoming summit.
President Trump on Feb. 25 departed from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland abroad Air Force One for Hanoi.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Feb. 25 waves before boarding Air Force One to fly to Hanoi, Vietnam, from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.
A day earlier at the 2019 Governors' Ball, the U.S. leader said, "I'm not in a rush. I don't want to rush anybody. I just don’t want testing. As long as there's no testing, we're happy."
Both Kim and Trump will hold an exclusive meeting on the evening of Feb. 27 and have dinner together, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders was quoted by Reuters as telling reporters on Air Force One.
Attending the dinner, the first between both leaders, will be U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. Two of Kim's advisers will also accompany their leader to the event.
Both leaders will hold an extended summit on Feb. 28.
krun@korea.kr