Trump, Kim open second nuclear summit with handshake, smiles
President Donald Trump speaks during a dinner with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019, in Hanoi. Seated on right are acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and interpreter. Seated on left are North Korean Vice Chairman Kim Yong Chol and North Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ri Yong Ho and interpreter. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump meets North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019, in Hanoi. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
People hold placards and U.S. and North Korea flags outside the Metropole hotel where U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will have dinner in Hanoi, Vietnam, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019. The second summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will take place in Hanoi on Feb. 27 and 28. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
President Donald Trump waves a Vietnam flag as he meets with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, waving an American flag, at the Office of Government Hall, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019, in Hanoi. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
A South Korean protester holds a banner showing a photo of U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a rally near the U.S. embassy in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019. The second summit between U.S President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will take place in Hanoi on Feb. 27 and 28. The letters read “Peace Agreement between U.S. and North Korea” and “Withdrawal of U.S. troops.” (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
President Donald Trump meets Vietnamese President Nguyen Phu Trong at the Presidential Palace, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019, in Hanoi. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
A woman glances at a shop selling t-shirts marking the summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019. Trump hoped for “great things” from his second meeting with Kim as he paid a courtesy call on his Vietnamese hosts ahead of the summit in the Vietnamese capital. (AP Photo/Adam Schreck)
In this Feb. 25, 2019, photo, Tran Lam Binh puts the final touches to a portrait of U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam. Binh’s portrait series of U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is to mark the two leaders’ second summit to be held in Hanoi this week. (AP Photo/Tran Van Minh)
A woman rides a bicycle as a policeman walks past Vietnam flags in Hanoi, Vietnam, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019, as Vietnam prepare to facilitate the second summit between U.S President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
Pham Quang Dung, 8years old, wearing a hairstyle of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, holds a placard that reads “For a World of Peace” with his father Pham Quang Trung, right, near a Hanoi hotel where Kim stays on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019, Hanoi, Vietnam. Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump are expected to meet for their second summit Feb. 27 and 28 in Hanoi. (AP Photo/Joeal Calupitan)
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, leaders of nations with a long history of hostilities, opened their second summit Wednesday with smiles and friendly banter before sitting down for a dinner that will set the stage for difficult talks about North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.
“I think it’ll lead to a wonderful, really a wonderful situation long term,” Trump said as he sat beside Kim at the dinner table.
Asked earlier if the summit would yield a political declaration to end the Korean War, Trump said, “We’ll see.”
Kim, who spoke through an interpreter, told Trump he was “confident that we can achieve great results that everyone welcomes.”
The venue, the colonial and neoclassical Sofitel Legend Metropole in the old part of Hanoi, came with a bit of irony.
Trump will be trying to convince Kim to give up his pursuit of nuclear weapons at a hotel that has bomb shelter that protected the likes of actress Jane Fonda and singer Joan Baez from American air raids during the Vietnam War. According to the hotel’s website, the bunker was closed and sealed after the war ended in the mid-1970s. It was rediscovered by chance during a bar renovation project in 2011.
Trump was joined at dinner by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. Kim was accompanied by Kim Yong Chol, a former military spy chief and Kim’s point man in negotiations, and Ri Yong Ho, the foreign affairs minister. Interpreters for each side also attended.
Anticipation for what will be accomplished at the summit ran high in Hanoi. But the carnival-like atmosphere in the Vietnamese capital, with street artists painting likenesses of the leaders and vendors hawking T-shirts showing Kim waving and Trump giving a thumbs-up, contrasted with the serious items on their agenda.
Scoring a victory at the summit would offset Trump’s political troubles back in Washington, where Michael Cohen, his former personal attorney, was prepared to tell lawmakers that Trump is a “racist,” a “conman” and a “cheat.” Earlier in the day, after meeting with the president of Vietnam, Trump was unable to ignore the drama playing out thousands of miles away.
Comments
MAKE AN ASS OF AMERICANS AGAIN IS MORE LIKE IT.
The dirty trickery of the present day party of Democrats so conveniently forgets history.
Here goes...
Imagine picking a fight with your spouse at a new acquaintance’s home, or even at your parents’ house, or the home of a friend. Manners prescribe that we do not do this, or “air our dirty laundry in public.” Personal disputes, like those we may have in our relationships, are generally held to have little place when we’re in public.
I don't worship Trump, as many of you imbeciles suggest. He just happens to be doing a much better job than I ever expected. I did not vote for him in the PA Primary, as I was in the never Trump Camp. If I still lived in that camp, I would never try to embarrass, misrepresent, bare false witness, or slander him, especially while he's over seas in a Peace Talks. What the heck is with Adam Schiff and the Intelligence Committee, to continue this circus like witch hunt, and for the media to give full air to it, while our president is over seas on such an important mission of world peace? Hello? Would one of you left leaning jerks justify this?
Let's stop this garbage! How can anyone in good conscience vote for these obstructing fools? Just suppose these fools sabotaged the talks with their desperate attempt to de-legitimize Trumps position, or better yet, the peoples selection. Folks... that is election meddling, and it needs to end now. Write your representatives and demand an end to this crap.