Top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump met Wednesday night in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi for their second summit to discuss concrete ways for peace on and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Kim and Trump shook hands and smiled in their first encounter at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hotel in Hanoi, where the two leaders were slated to briefly sit down one-on-one before having a social dinner, opening their two-day summit.
The handshaking was made with flags of the DPRK and the United States standing behind them. A banner hanging above the flags read "Hanoi Summit" both in English and Korean.
The summit came about eight months after the first Kim-Trump meeting in Singapore in June last year, where Trump pledged to provide security guarantees to the DPRK while Kim reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to a complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
The two leaders stood around for a moment for a photo opportunity, before sitting down at the same place for a brief one-on-one chat.
Noting "efforts and patience" were needed more than ever in the period that had passed, Kim said he was convinced that they can create an "outcome that everybody will welcome" in his second meeting with Trump.
There was some mistrust and misunderstanding standing in the way of the two leaders, Kim said, but they overcame the obstacles to meet again in Hanoi in 260 days or so.
Trump said he hoped his meeting with the DPRK leader would be "equal or greater" than their first summit.
The U.S. president said he had a "successful" first meeting with Kim, they had made "a lot of progress," and the greatest one was his good relationship with Kim. He added that the DPRK has tremendous, unbelievable and unlimited economic potential.
After the short appearance in front of journalists, Kim and Trump had a 20-minute one-on-one closed-door dialogue, before having a social dinner with their aides and translators present.
