Partnering for peace!

US President Donald Trump began meeting yesterday with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in their second summit together in less than a year. Held in the Vietnamese city of Hanoi, the meeting is intended to bring about North Korea’s de-nuclearisation, and possibly provide a formal end to the Korean War. The two men previously met last June in Singapore. That historic summit ended with some backslapping and fine words, but little solid progress has been made since.

After motorcades across Hanoi, they shook hands in front of an array of flags at the city’s Metropole hotel. Trump wore a dark two-piece suit, Kim a smart boiler suit, but both men looked tired, and Kim appeared somewhat overawed. In early remarks in front of cameras, Trump predicted greater results that at the first summit. He said the achievement of the first summit was their getting to know each other. Kim said he was “certain” that an outcome, rather than stalemate “will be achieved this time.”

If a deal is reached, it would give Trump a rare foreign-policy victory at a time when his presidency is increasingly embattled at home. Both Trump and Kim arrived in Vietnam on Tuesday local time, Kim having taken the long overland route by train through China. The two men met on schedule Wednesday evening at 18.40 local time (6.40 am EST) and then headed in to a “social dinner.”