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Trump-Kim summit 2019: meeting begins with smiles and pleasantries, but challenge of denuclearisation remains
- Both Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un were upbeat about their two-day meeting in Hanoi
- But while Trump insists he is committed to seeking Pyongyang’s disarmament, sceptical analysts say the US president is looking to score a quick political win
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US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un began their high-stakes summit on denuclearisation with promises of a “great” outcome, eight months after they first met in Singapore for talks that most experts agree yielded few results.
As both men exchanged smiles, handshakes and pleasantries just after 6.30pm local time at Hanoi’s Sofitel Legend Metropole hotel, Trump said he hoped the summit would be equally or more successful than the first, and praised North Korea’s “tremendous economic potential”.
Asked by reporters if he was walking back on denuclearisation, Trump said, “No.”
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Kim, through an interpreter, said he was “confident of achieving the great results that everyone will welcome”.
“There was distrust and misunderstanding everywhere [around] us. Hostile old practices tried to stop us going our forward, but we overcame them,” he said.
Crowds thronged the heavily guarded streets outside the hotel, hoping to catch a glimpse of the two men as they arrived in their motorcades.
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