HANOI (AFP, REUTERS) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump both arrived in Vietnam on Tuesday (Feb 26), the eve of their second summit at which they will tackle how to implement a North Korean pledge to give up its nuclear weapons.

Trump flew into the capital Hanoi on Air Force One, touching down just before 9pm local time (10pm Singapore) after flying half way around the world from Washington.

Kim had arrived earlier, following a two-and-a-half-day train journey from Pyongyang, through China. He completed the last stretch from a border station to Hanoi by car.

The two leaders, who seemed to strike up a surprisingly warm relationship at their first summit in Singapore last June, will meet for a brief one-on-one conversation on Wednesday evening, followed by a dinner, at which they will each be accompanied by two guests and interpreters, White House spokesman Sarah Sanders told reporters.  They will meet again on Thursday, she said.

Earlier, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that the summit would be taking place at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hotel.

Their talks come eight months after the historic summit in Singapore, the first between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader.  

While the first meeting was all about breaking the ice after decades of war and bitter animosity between their countries, this time there will be pressure on both to move beyond the vaguely worded commitment they made in Singapore to work toward the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

Trump’s critics at home have warned him against cutting a deal that would do little to curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, urging specific, verifiable North Korean action to abandon the nuclear weapons that threaten the United States.

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