Kim Jong-un en route to Vietnam summit by train
- 5 years ago
We are now just three days away from the 2nd North Korea-U.S. summit to be held in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.
The North Korean leader is already on his way down there, and as many expected, he's taking the train.
Our Lee Ji-won is in Hanoi and we go to her now for the latest.
Ji-won what do you have for us?
Devin, like you said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been confirmed to be taking a train to to Vietnam.
He reportedly passed through the Chinese city of Dandong, on the border with North Korea, last night at around 9-thirty, local time.
His departure was reported by Russia's TASS news agency, and it was confirmed this morning by North Korea's state-run news agency that Kim had indeed left Saturday afternoon.
The report listed the delegates accompanying Kim, which included Kim Yong-chol, who has negotiated with Secretary Pompeo, Ri Su-yong, vice chairman of the central committee of the Worker's Party of Korea, Ri Yong Ho, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kim Yo-jong, the North Korean leader's younger sister and Choe Son-hui, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Now, we're not sure if Kim is going to take the route his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, took to get to Vietnam -- the late Kim took a train to China and then flew to Vietnam from there.
But there have been preparations made at a train station on Vietnam's border with China, so we are expecting Kim to use train to come almost all the way here... which will be 4-thousand kilometers in distance, and take about 60 hours.
The expectation is that he'll arrive at the border station at Dong Dang early Tuesday and take a car to Hanoi.
There have been talks between the North Korean and American sides in Hanoi since last week, but we understand there weren't any this morning.
Yes Devin. The working-level officials have been holding negotiations everyday since Thursday.
But today, we heard that the U.S. delegates left their Hotel du Parc Hanoi early this morning.
We're not yet sure where they are headed to.
We also don't know where or what the North Korean delegates are doing right now.
But it's our guess that the two sides are reporting to their respective superiors about the negotiations.
Yesterday, their morning session finished in less than an hour,... but they resumed their talks in the afternoon, which lasted for 3 hours.
The main points of contention are understood to include Pyeongyang's dismantlement of its nuclear facility at Yeongbyeon, Washington's declaration of an end to the Korean War, and allowing inter-Korean economic exchanges.
The North Korean leader is already on his way down there, and as many expected, he's taking the train.
Our Lee Ji-won is in Hanoi and we go to her now for the latest.
Ji-won what do you have for us?
Devin, like you said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been confirmed to be taking a train to to Vietnam.
He reportedly passed through the Chinese city of Dandong, on the border with North Korea, last night at around 9-thirty, local time.
His departure was reported by Russia's TASS news agency, and it was confirmed this morning by North Korea's state-run news agency that Kim had indeed left Saturday afternoon.
The report listed the delegates accompanying Kim, which included Kim Yong-chol, who has negotiated with Secretary Pompeo, Ri Su-yong, vice chairman of the central committee of the Worker's Party of Korea, Ri Yong Ho, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kim Yo-jong, the North Korean leader's younger sister and Choe Son-hui, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Now, we're not sure if Kim is going to take the route his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, took to get to Vietnam -- the late Kim took a train to China and then flew to Vietnam from there.
But there have been preparations made at a train station on Vietnam's border with China, so we are expecting Kim to use train to come almost all the way here... which will be 4-thousand kilometers in distance, and take about 60 hours.
The expectation is that he'll arrive at the border station at Dong Dang early Tuesday and take a car to Hanoi.
There have been talks between the North Korean and American sides in Hanoi since last week, but we understand there weren't any this morning.
Yes Devin. The working-level officials have been holding negotiations everyday since Thursday.
But today, we heard that the U.S. delegates left their Hotel du Parc Hanoi early this morning.
We're not yet sure where they are headed to.
We also don't know where or what the North Korean delegates are doing right now.
But it's our guess that the two sides are reporting to their respective superiors about the negotiations.
Yesterday, their morning session finished in less than an hour,... but they resumed their talks in the afternoon, which lasted for 3 hours.
The main points of contention are understood to include Pyeongyang's dismantlement of its nuclear facility at Yeongbyeon, Washington's declaration of an end to the Korean War, and allowing inter-Korean economic exchanges.