Trump, Kim to meet for 2nd summit in February

Washington, January 19 

US President Donald Trump will hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in late February on Pyongyang dismantling its nuclear and missile programmes, the White House has announced. 

The two leaders had met on June 12 last year in Singapore for the first summit.

While the White House did not identify a location for the second summit between the two leaders, according to media reports preparations were under way to host the summit, most likely in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi or coastal city of Danang.

The announcement came after Trump met with North Korean envoy, Kim Yong Chol, on Friday for a discussion that included talk about Kim Jong Un’s unfulfilled pledge to dismantle his country’s nuclear weapons programmes. 

President Trump sat down with Kim Yong Chol, a high-level official in North Korea’s Communist government, in the Oval Office, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said. “President Donald J Trump met with Kim Yong Chol for an hour and half, to discuss denuclearisation and a second summit, which will take place near the end of February. 

“The President looks forward to meeting with Chairman Kim at a place to be announced at a later date.” she said in a statement.

The press secretary told reporters: “We continue to make progress, we continue to have conversations.” The US is going to continue to keep “pressure and sanctions” on North Korea until “we see fully and verifiable denuclearisation”, she said.

The North Korean envoy arrived at the White House after a closed-door meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US special envoy for North Korea Stephen Biegun at a hotel here.

Last year in Singapore, Trump had described his first-ever historic meeting with Kim Jong-un as “really fantastic” and said they had agreed to “sign” an unspecified document after their “very positive” summit, aimed at normalising ties and complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. — PTI