With the second summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump just around the corner,... our Kan Hyeong-woo takes a look at who will support the leaders in Hanoi.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump will surely be the faces of the upcoming Hanoi summit, grabbing all the limelight.
But it's their respective support teams that have led and will continue to hold working-level talks in the run up to the summit.

Similar to the Singapore summit last June,... Vice Chairman of the Worker's Party of Korea Kim Yong-chol and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will serve as the top advisors for Kim Jong-un and President Trump, respectively.
North Korea's Minister of Foreign Affairs Ri Yong-ho and U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton will also again play a key role at the Hanoi summit.

But in regards to the pre-summit negotiations,... there have been personnel changes on both sides.
North Korea's former ambassador to Spain Kim Hyok-chol has replaced the regime's Vice Foreign Minister Choe Sun-hui.
U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun has also taken over the role served by the U.S. Ambassdor to the Philippines Sung Kim in the run-up to the first summit.

Photos suggest Kim Hyok-chol and Biegun are the negotiation channels that directly report to their respective leaders.
Both Kim and Biegun have met each other's leaders face-to-face,... indicating their messages have been clearly exchanged and understood.

With no experience in leading North Korea-U.S. negotiations,... the pair are under pressure to break out of the unfruitful patterns seen over the past decades.

The world will have to wait to see what kind of agreement comes out of the Hanoi summit,... but the outcome could determine whether the pairing of Kim Hyok-chol and Stephen Biegun will still be in place if President Trump and Kim Jong-un meet for a third time in the future.
Kan Hyeong-woo, Arirang News.