US President Donald Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un will hold second meeting in February, the White House has announced.
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The announcement comes after North Korean Vice Chairman Kim Yong Chol paid a rare visit to Washington and met with Trump and other top US officials on Friday.
“President Donald J. Trump met with Kim Yong Chol for an hour and half, to discuss denuclearization 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,” White House spokesman Sarah Sanders said in a statement.
Meanwhile, a government source in Vietnam told AFP that "logistical preparations" were being made to host the summit, probably in the capital Hanoi or coastal city of Danang, however, no official decision had been made.
Also, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said in an interview with Bloomberg TV that Hanoi would welcome the two leaders.
"We don't know the final decision. However, if it happens here, we will do our best to facilitate the meeting."
In spite of the summit announcement, there was no indication that differences over Washington’s demands that Pyongyang abandon a nuclear weapons program had been settled, with Sanders saying the US would continue to put pressure on the Asian country over the issue.
"We continue to make progress. We continue to have conversations. The United States is going to continue to keep pressure and sanctions on North Korea," she said.
Prior to his meeting with Trump, the North Korean envoy met with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Pompeo had a “good discussion” with Kim Yong Chol “on efforts to make progress on commitments President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un made at their summit in Singapore,” according to the State Department.
Trump has claimed that Washington's diplomacy with Pyongyang has eliminated a purported threat posed by North Korea to the US national security.
In their first summit, Trump and Kim agreed to work toward denuclearization, but that agreement, made in a written document, was broadly worded.
Denuclearizing North Korea has made little progress in recent months.
