Trump confirms details of second summit with North Korea, touting its potential as 'economic powerhouse'
President Trump is looking forward to this month’s summit with Kim Jong Un, saying Friday that he sees the potential of an “Economic Powerhouse” in North Korea.
Following what he called a “productive meeting” between a top U.S. envoy and Pyongyang, Trump tweeted Friday evening that a time and date for a second summit have been “agreed upon.”
“It will take place in Hanoi, Vietnam, on February 27 & 28,” he tweeted. “I look forward to seeing Chairman Kim & advancing the cause of peace.”
Trump also tweeted that he has hope that North Korea will grow as an economic power as it distances itself from its nuclear missile program.
“North Korea, under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, will become a great Economic Powerhouse,” he wrote. “He may surprise some but he won’t surprise me, because I have gotten to know him & fully understand how capable he is. North Korea will become a different kind of Rocket - an Economic one!”
A statement from the State Department released Friday confirmed the meeting’s progress, stating that representatives from both countries “discussed advancing President Trump and Chairman Kim’s Singapore summit commitments of complete denuclearization, transforming U.S. - D.P.R.K. relations, and building a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.”
U.S.led negotiations aimed at stripping North Korea of its nuclear weapons program has made little headway since the first Kim-Trump summit in Singapore last June, when Kim pledged to work toward the "complete denuclearization" of the Korean Peninsula, without providing a clear timetable or roadmap.
Critics fear the second summit is an attempt by Kim to win relief from U.S. sanctions without any real promise of denuclearisation.
The U.S. envoy and North Korean representatives are slated to meet one more time before Trump and Kim’s summit.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
