Vietnam ready to coordinate to successfully organize US-North Korea summit

US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met in Singapore in June 2018. Photo: AP

"Vietnam welcomes the second summit between the US and North Korea. Vietnam strongly supports dialogue to maintain peace, security and stability on the Korean peninsula," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang commented on February 6 about US President Donald Trump announcing the location of the summit with the North Korean leader.

In his State of the Union address to the US Congress today, Mr. Trump said he would meet with Chairman Kim Jong-un in Vietnam on February 27-28, but did not announce the specific city where the event would be held.

Ms. Hang affirmed that Vietnam is ready to actively contribute and coordinate with relevant parties to make the second US-North Korea summit a success.

At a press conference last month, Ms. Hang said Vietnam is "very confident in its ability and capacity to organize international events in Vietnam as we have successfully done in APEC 2017 and other international events."

The APEC 2017 Conference held in Da Nang city left a good impression of Vietnam's land and people and was highly appreciated by international friends for its ability to organize international-scale events.

InterviewBloombergOn January 18, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that Vietnam was very pleased and would do its best to host the second US-North Korea summit if it took place here. "Vietnam has cooperated well with the US in economic development and trade relations, as well as in many other areas," the Prime Minister emphasized.

The first US-North Korea summit was held in Singapore in June 2018, contributing to enhancing the image and position of this island nation. However, the US-North Korea negotiations that followed did not make much significant progress due to disagreements in understanding the concept of denuclearization. The US President hopes that the second summit will help the two countries' leaders eliminate disagreements and achieve substantial progress in efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.