Meeting between US and North Korean leaders expected to take place in Da Nang or Hanoi
Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un are to hold their second summit in Vietnam at the end of February, the US president has confirmed.
In his State of the Union address to Congress, Trump said: “As part of a bold new diplomacy, we continue our historic push for peace on the Korean peninsula.”
And he repeated an earlier claim to have averted a major conflict through his Korean diplomacy – a mixture of engagement, economic sanctions and threats of military action.
“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.
Since his first meeting with Kim in Singapore last June, Trump said“our hostages have come home, nuclear testing has stopped and there has not been a missile launch in more than 15 months”.
He added: “Much work remains to be done, but my relationship with Kim Jong-un is a good one. And Chairman Kim and I will meet again on February 27 and 28 in Vietnam.”
The president did not name a precise venue. According to CNN, the two cities under consideration are Hanoi and Da Nang. Reuters reported that four US military V-22 Osprey aircraft had arrived at Da Nang airport from the southern Japanese island of Okinawa on Tuesday evening and left a few hours later.
