North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump are set to kick off two days of meetings in Hanoi on Feb. 27, 2019, beginning with a warm-up dinner where they are expected to exchange pleasantries in a bid to demonstrate their budding chemistry.
Both Kim and Trump arrived in Hanoi on Feb. 26, 2019 for their first meeting in eight months.
While their historic first summit, in Singapore, focused on breaking the ice to pave the way for full-scale diplomacy for denuclearization, improved ties and a peace regime, they now face the more daunting task of yielding concrete deals on details, in which "the devil" is, beyond a vaguely-worded joint statement.
Kim and Trump plan to have a "brief one-on-one" meeting followed by a "social dinner," according to the White House. Two senior American officials -- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney -- will dine with them. Two top aides to Kim, including Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of the Workers' Party, will also take part.
In a notice to reporters Tuesday, Trump's office described the other North Korean to participate in the dinner as a "third associate." Chances are high that the North Korean leader's influential sister, Kim Yo-jong, will be present.
The mood in the dinner session is likely to serve as a litmus test of this week's summit results that may decide the future of the nascent peace process spearheaded by the showy leaders.
Full-fledged negotiations on what would be the agreement from the summit are expected on Feb. 28, 2019, the last day of their second summit.
Senior nuclear envoys of the two sides are believed to have drafted a rough joint statement filling some blanks on sensitive issues is up to the leaders' bargaining.
Drawing keen attention is whether they will reach meaningful agreements on the fate of the Yongbyon nuclear complex, the heart of North Korea's nuclear program, and other major facilities connected to its weapons of mass destruction development.
Trump's priority is to win a deal on freezing their operations. A best-case scenario for the self-styled master negotiator is securing Kim's promise to shut down the Yongbyon compound in a verifiable and irreversible way, plus a timetable on full denuclearization.
Potential benefits for Pyongyang include a political end to the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armistice, sanctions relief and the continued suspension of regular combined military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea.
Trump signaled that time is on his side, repeatedly saying that he is "in no rush." He said the Hanoi meeting with Kim won't be the last, effectively lowering public expectations on the summit outcome this time.
It's unclear whether the two sides will have another round of working-level talks on those issues ahead of the Kim-Trump meeting.
Kim's pre-summit schedule remains unclear. He visited North Korea's embassy in Hanoi on Tuesday evening.
Trump is scheduled to hold separate meetings with Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong and then meet Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc from 11 a.m.
Kim has more time than Trump for meetings with the Vietnamese leaders, as he will combine his Hanoi visit for the summit with a "friendly official" trip to the Southeast Asian nation. (Yonhap)