Foreign Minister: Vietnam prepares best for US-North Korea summit

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh chaired the meeting. Photo:Nguyen Gia Chinh.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh chaired a meeting of ministries and sectors on the morning of February 22 to hear reports on preparations for the US-North Korea summit scheduled to take place in Hanoi on February 27-28.

At the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh assessed that Vietnam faced many difficulties in preparing for the second US-North Korea summit, as there were only two weeks to prepare. However, the Deputy Prime Minister said that the current work was considered good and thoughtful, with advance delegations from the US and North Korea coming to work with the Vietnamese government.

With only three days left to prepare, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh emphasized that from now until next week, ministries and sectors must coordinate well with Hanoi in the spirit of preparing everything in the best way, in order to promote the country's image.

Responding to the press yesterday afternoon, Deputy Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung also said that Vietnam's preparations for security, logistics, reception, and press information for the Trump-Kim summit have been almost completed, and both the US and North Korea highly appreciated and thanked Vietnam for its preparations.

During their second summit in Hanoi, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump are expected to discuss concrete steps toward the goal of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula agreed upon at their first summit.

An unnamed US official told Reuters todayReutersthat Washington and Pyongyang will seek to reach a common understanding on the definition of denuclearization during the meeting. The official said that expectations should not be set too high and that this summit and President Trump have also made it clear that this may not be the last meeting with Kim Jong-un.