US President Donald Trump is scheduled to arrive Tuesday night, as Hanoi becomes the focus of the world over the next two days. At about 5 pm on Tuesday, Kim's motorcade left the Melia Hanoi Hotel and 5 minutes later arrived at the North Korean embassy in Hanoi, where Kim was greeted with great shouts of joy and hurrah from people inside the embassy, before he walked into the compound and went upstairs under protection.
Almost at the same time, the US side transported the journalists who signed up with the White House to the Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi to wait for the arrival of Air Force One. According to the White House, Trump is scheduled to arrive at 9:15 pm local time.
Many journalists began moving to the Viet Xo Friendship Cultural Labour Palace, a giant Soviet-era edifice a few blocks from Kim's hotel. More than 3,000 journalists from around the world including US, Vietnamese and South Korean government-related media are attending.
Some journalists privately speculated that Kim was trying to send a signal to the world that he will not play by US rules and can dominate the process as long as he wants. But the surprise change just a few hours before Kim's arrival could also be out of security concerns, said Zheng Jiyong, director of the center for Korean studies at Fudan University in Shanghai. To attract shoppers, tourists and journalists, some stores in downtown Hanoi are selling T-shirts with pictures of Kim and Trump, many featuring last year's handshake in Singapore.
The Kim-Trump T-shirt costs about 1000,000 VND ($4.31). A seller who didn't give her name told the Global Times that they are made in Vietnam and her store sold about 100 a day in the last two days.
The Hanoi summit on Wednesday and Thursday will consist of a one-on-one meeting between Trump and Kim and expanded talks with their respective delegations. A joint statement is expected to be issued after the meeting.
This article was originally published in Global Times.
