Trump-Kim summit 2019: US president hails North Korea’s ‘awesome potential’ if only ‘my friend Kim Jong-un’ would denuclearise

US President Donald Trump in a Twitter blitz hours before his highly anticipated talks with Kim Jong-un sought to sweet talk the North Korean leader into giving up Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal while also taking aim at critics who say the summit is political theatre aimed at distracting Americans from his domestic woes.

The irascible leader reserved choice words for top domestic opponents – including his one-time fixer Michael Cohen, who is expected to testify against him before Congress at the same time as the summit.

And amid speculation that Trump will go soft on Kim, the US leader in a tweet two hours before the talks were to begin wrote that there was “false reporting” about his intentions going into the meeting.

“Kim Jong-un and I will try very hard to work something out on denuclearisation and then making North Korea an economic powerhouse,” the president wrote.

“I believe that China, Russia, Japan and South Korea will be very helpful.”

Trump, tweeting from the JW Marriott Hotel in Hanoi where he is staying for the two-day talks with Kim starting this evening, said North Korea could become like Vietnam – also communist-ruled – if it decided to denuclearise.

“Vietnam is thriving like few places on earth. North Korea would be the same, and very quickly, if it would denuclearise,” he wrote. “The potential is awesome, a great opportunity, like none other in history, for my friend Kim Jong-un. We will know fairly soon – very interesting!”

It was one of several tweets by Trump from Hanoi, the host city of the second round of his nuclear talks with Kim. Upon his arrival, Trump hailed the “great reception” and “tremendous crowds, and so much love”.

The American leader has sought to offer incentives over punitive measures in dealing with the young North Korean leader in recent weeks, departing from the vitriol he hurled at Pyongyang in the early days of his presidency.

In the afternoon, Trump again took to Twitter, this time to lambast Richard Blumenthal, the Democratic Party senator who is one of his most strident domestic critics. The two clashed last year over the senator’s record as a Marine Corps reservist during the Vietnam war.

“I have now spent more time in Vietnam than Da Nang Dick Blumenthal, the third rate Senator from Connecticut,” Trump wrote.

“His war stories of his heroism in Vietnam were a total fraud – he was never even there. We talked about it today with Vietnamese leaders!”

On Cohen, Trump described his one-time aide as “one of many lawyers who represented me”.

The disgraced lawyer, convicted last year for campaign financing infringements, is scheduled to testify before Congress later on Wednesday – around the same time as Trump’s meeting with Kim – on the links between the US leader’s 2016 election campaign and Russia.

Text of Cohen’s planned statement showed he will call Trump a “racist”, a “con man” and a “cheat”.

Trump in his tweet about Cohen said the debarred lawyer was “lying in order to reduce his prison time”.

He said Cohen was using “Crooked’s lawyer”, referencing his infamous nickname for arch political rival Hillary Clinton.

Trump and Kim are scheduled to meet at 6.30pm local time (7.30pm HKT) at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hotel. They will have a brief one-on-one meeting before joining top aides for dinner.

The talks will continue on Thursday. Analysts expect Kim to accede to further curtailment of his country’s decades old push to become a nuclear power, but the talks are unlikely to secure full disarmament.

Trump met with Vietnam’s top leader, President Nguyen Phu Trong, around 11am local time.

In brief comments in front of the media, the US president thanked the Southeast Asian country for its hospitality and lauded its economic progress as a model for North Korea.

“We both felt good about having this important summit in Vietnam,” Trump told Nguyen. “Vietnam is thriving … I just see what you’ve done and I’m very proud of what you’ve done.”

After the meeting, the two leaders presided over a ceremony in which VietJet signed deals with US firms Boeing and General Electric worth US$18 billion. The airline committed to buying 100 new 737 MAX planes worth US$12.7 billion, with US$5.3 billion worth of General Electric engines.

“I really appreciate the orders that you made today of Boeing and General Electric and the various other companies that will be selling you aircraft,” Trump told Nguyen as they sat down for lunch.

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“I also appreciate that you are also looking at much of our military equipment. We make the best military equipment in the world, by far.”

Trump and Nguyen ate traditional Vietnamese dishes including grilled cod fish or cha ca, steamed glutinous rice and Hanoi-style spring rolls.

Kim is expected to stay in Vietnam until Saturday, making it his longest foreign trip as leader. He has previously stayed in China for four days, including travel time. It is rare for a North Korean leader to be absent from his country for such a long period.

On Wednesday he did not leave Melia Hotel, where his delegation is staying, ahead of his evening meeting with Trump. Some of his top economic advisers however travelled to Haiphong – some 110km from Hanoi – to visit the industrial complex of VinFast, a Vietnamese private automotive manufacturer. En route, they stopped at Ha Long Bay, a popular tourist attraction.

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There were multiple reports on Tuesday that Kim too would make the trip, but his heavily armoured cavalcade was not part of the convoy that left the Melia Hotel early on Wednesday.

Observers have previously said North Korea may be seeking ideas from Vietnam on how to develop the coastal zones of Wonsan-Kalma into a tourist zone, such as Ha Long Bay.