Kim Jong-un arrives in Vietnam for second summit with Donald Trump
February 26, 2019 08:05 am
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s train arrived in Vietnam on Tuesday (Feb 26) ahead of his second summit with US President Donald Trump in Hanoi.
The olive green train pulled into Vietnam’s Dong Dang station after a marathon 4,000km (2,500 mile), two-and-a-half day journey across China from Pyongyang.
Schoolchildren waving North Korean flags and a military guard of honour in pristine white uniforms greeted Mr Kim, the first North Korean leader to visit Vietnam since his grandfather Kim Il Sung in 1964.
Security was ultra-tight with scores of heavily armed Vietnamese soldiers and police guarding the site.
According to Yonhap news agency, shortly after arriving at the Dong Dang station in Lang Son province, Mr Kim switched to a car for a drive to the capital city of Hanoi, where he is scheduled to hold a summit with US President Donald Trump on Wednesday (Feb 27) and Thursday (Feb 28).
The 170km drive is expected to take a few hours.
The road from Dong Dang to Hanoi was closed from 7pm local time on Monday (Feb 25) to 2pm on Tuesday, Vietnamese media reported.
Mr Trump, meanwhile, is expected to arrive in Hanoi on Tuesday evening.
Mr Trump will meet Mr Kim for a brief one-on-one conversation on Wednesday evening, followed by a social dinner, at which they will each be accompanied by two guests and interpreters, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters on Air Force One.
She said that would be followed by more meetings between the two leaders on Thursday.
Their talks come eight months after their historic summit in Singapore, the first between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader.
-Agencies
