Jump to content
You are not logged in ▶️ Click here to sign-up or login ×

North Korea's Kim begins long train trip to Vietnam for summit with Trump - report

rooster59

By rooster59
in World News

Recommended Posts

rooster59 Star Member

rooster59

Posted
Posted

North Korea's Kim begins long train trip to Vietnam for summit with Trump - report

By Ju-min Park and Soyoung Kim

 

800x800 (4).jpg

FILE PHOTO: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks at the Ministry of the People's Armed Forces on occasion of the 71st anniversary of the Korean People's Army (KPA) in Pyongyang, North Korea in this February 8, 2019 KCNA Photo. KCNA via REUTERS/File Photo

 

HANOI (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un set off by train for Vietnam on Saturday, for his second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump next week, media reported, and hours later, two witnesses saw a train crossing into China from North Korea.

 

The reports of Kim's departure from North Korea came after Vietnam announced that Kim would make an official visit in "coming days", as the Southeast Asian country prepares to host the summit with Trump on Wednesday and Thursday.

 

No details of the leaders' travel arrangements, or for the summit, have been officially released.

 

Trump and Kim will meet in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, eight months after their historic summit in Singapore in June - the first between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader - at which they pledged to work towards the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

 

But progress has been scant since then.

 

The Trump administration has pressed North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programme, which threatens the United States, before it can expect any concessions.

 

North Korea wants an easing of punishing U.S.-led sanctions, security guarantees and a formal end of the 1950-1953 Korean War, which ended in a truce, not a treaty.

 

Kim left the North Korean capital of Pyongyang at around 5 p.m. (0800 GMT) in an armoured train, Russia's TASS news agency said, citing a North Korean diplomatic source.

 

North Korea's state media has yet to confirm either Kim's trip to Vietnam or his summit with Trump.

 

Two witnesses in the Chinese border city of Dandong, where the main rail line from North Korea arrives in China, said a train had crossed the Yalu River into China at around 9.30 p.m. (1330 GMT).

 

South Korea's Yonhap news agency and broadcaster YTN also reported that a train suspected to be carrying Kim had arrived in Dandong.

 

Chinese security chased away people trying to take photographs, one witness said.

 

It was unclear if Kim was on the train. China has declined to answer questions about Kim's travel plans via the country.

 

It could take Kim at least two and a half days to travel the thousands of kilometres through China by train to Vietnam.

 

TRAIN SPOTTING

 

A senior security official in Vietnam told Reuters that Hanoi had been expecting a Vietnam-bound train to depart Pyongyang on Saturday, but did not know if Kim Jong Un himself was on board.

 

Two sources with direct knowledge of security and logistics planning told Reuters on Wednesday that Vietnam was preparing for Kim to arrive by train.

 

His train was expected to stop at the Vietnamese border station of Dong Dang, where he will disembark and drive 170 km (105 miles) to Hanoi by car, the sources told Reuters.

 

Vietnamese police have stepped up security around the border station.

 

On Feb. 26, Vietnam will ban traffic on the road Kim is expected to take to Hanoi from a station on the Chinese border, state media said.

 

Travel by train has been a favourite mode of transport for Kim Jong Un, and his father, Kim Jong Il, and grandfather, Kim Il Sung.

 

In 1958, Kim Il Sung went from Pyongyang to Beijing by train, then flew from Beijing to Hanoi in a plane provided by China, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported on Saturday citing archived Chinese media reports.

 

QUESTIONS

 

The summit in Hanoi comes amid some questions about prospects for progress.

 

American intelligence officials have said they believe Kim is unlikely to ever relinquish all of his nuclear arsenal, and U.N. monitors have reported that in recent months North Korea had taken steps to hide, disperse and protect its weapons.

 

But a former U.S. intelligence officer, who helped arrange the first summit, predicted on Friday the second summit would be more productive than the first, quoting Kim Jong Un as saying last year he did not want his children to live with the burden of nuclear weapons. [L3N20I05O]

 

Kim is visiting Vietnam at the invitation of President Nguyen Phu Trong, who is also general secretary of the ruling Communist Party, Vietnam's foreign ministry said in a statement earlier on Saturday, but it gave no further details.

 

The preferred location for the summit is the Government Guesthouse, a colonial-era building in central Hanoi, three sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

 

reuters_logo.jpg

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-02-24

Link to comment
Share on other sites
TopDeadSenter Silver Member

TopDeadSenter

Posted
Posted

This is perhaps the most significant meeting of 2 heads of state ever. Full credit to Trump for arranging this historic summit, just 3 years ago the possibility of such a meeting would have been scoffed at. Yet 2 years into Trumps first term here we are. Incredible. Yet what is unbearably sad is that many of the left would seemingly prefer nuclear war to break out than concede Trump is indeed the master of the deal. He is making the world a far safer place - let us not forget that when Trump won his election residents of Japan and Guam were preparing for nuclear armaggeddon. 

 

 Good luck to the two men and their teams. Who cares why Kim didn't fly or what color Trump is. Who cares.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Tug Ruby Member

Tug

Posted
Posted
31 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

This is perhaps the most significant meeting of 2 heads of state ever. Full credit to Trump for arranging this historic summit, just 3 years ago the possibility of such a meeting would have been scoffed at. Yet 2 years into Trumps first term here we are. Incredible. Yet what is unbearably sad is that many of the left would seemingly prefer nuclear war to break out than concede Trump is indeed the master of the deal. He is making the world a far safer place - let us not forget that when Trump won his election residents of Japan and Guam were preparing for nuclear armaggeddon. 

 

 Good luck to the two men and their teams. Who cares why Kim didn't fly or what color Trump is. Who cares.

Holey cow

Link to comment
Share on other sites
neeray Gold Member

neeray

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Tug said:

Why not fly?if you devote enough resources to develope icbms surely you can feed your people and keep the planes flying ya criminal

  "feed your people" ! (they're only being allowed half rations of grass and tree bark)

 

"North Korea says it is facing a food shortage for 2019 that will require rations be reduced by almost half for its citizens."(MSN).

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Srikcir Platinum Member

Srikcir

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, TopDeadSenter said:

This is perhaps the most significant meeting of 2 heads of state ever.

Did you miss the most significant meeting of 2 heads of state ever in Singapore last year?

Or is that now being discounted as nothing significant actually was accomplished?

At least for the US.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Srikcir Platinum Member

Srikcir

Posted
Posted

While Trump says he's in no rush' to see Pyongyang give up nuclear weapons even as it continues to develop its nuclear weapons program (contrast this with Trump's criticism of President Barack Obama’s policy of “strategic patience” as Pyongyang increased its nuclear and missile capabilities), I'm sure he wants some very tangible results before year-end on North Korea denuclearization as a prelude to the POTUS election in 2020.

Presenting himself as an international peacemaker might make a powerful election campaign promotion. To that end he may rush to make upfront one-sided concessions for Kim's pledges. Kim seems to understand Trump's political strategy:

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ArtHay Apprentice Member

ArtHay

Posted
Posted
This is perhaps the most significant meeting of 2 heads of state ever. Full credit to Trump for arranging this historic summit, just 3 years ago the possibility of such a meeting would have been scoffed at. Yet 2 years into Trumps first term here we are. Incredible. Yet what is unbearably sad is that many of the left would seemingly prefer nuclear war to break out than concede Trump is indeed the master of the deal. He is making the world a far safer place - let us not forget that when Trump won his election residents of Japan and Guam were preparing for nuclear armaggeddon. 
 
 Good luck to the two men and their teams. Who cares why Kim didn't fly or what color Trump is. Who cares.


It’s not a matter of preferring nuclear war. It’s concern arising out of the realization by many that this meeting is between a American President who desperately wants a historic diplomatic win at any cost as a legacy for an otherwise rocky presidency and the head of an authoritarian state who welcomes the opportunity to lend his regime legitimacy.


Sent from my iPad using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Basil B Ruby Member

Basil B

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

Lets see, a train ride to China, then a full train of supplies from Bejieng back to North Korea, hmmm, wonder who may not have thought of this reason for the train... Hope they have another good visit, wonder if Dennis will be joining.

Geezer

He going to China first to be briefed programmed for his meeting with DT

Kim90.jpg.4b88dbccd103d3ff72ee9e05c00b6a7b.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Date Masamune Explorer Member

Date Masamune

Posted
Posted
On 2/24/2019 at 9:21 AM, TopDeadSenter said:

This is perhaps the most significant meeting of 2 heads of state ever. Full credit to Trump for arranging this historic summit, just 3 years ago the possibility of such a meeting would have been scoffed at. Yet 2 years into Trumps first term here we are. Incredible. Yet what is unbearably sad is that many of the left would seemingly prefer nuclear war to break out than concede Trump is indeed the master of the deal. He is making the world a far safer place - let us not forget that when Trump won his election residents of Japan and Guam were preparing for nuclear armaggeddon. 

 

 Good luck to the two men and their teams. Who cares why Kim didn't fly or what color Trump is. Who cares.

Not true. The Asian tourists kept coming to Guam, Business went on as usual. No Armageddon. Nothing changed instead the Kim got one thing the Kims have always wanted, without a single concession. The American president groveling before him. Trump is a chump who got hoodwinked.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.




×
×
  • Create New...