President Donald Trump gestures as he and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un arrive for a signing ceremony during their summit in Singapore on June 12, 2018. | Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
President Donald Trump told a group of television news anchors hours before his State of the Union address on Tuesday that he plans to meet North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un for a two-day summit in Vietnam on Feb. 27 and 28.
Trump is expected to formally announce the details of his second summit with Kim during remarks from the House chamber later in the evening, four sources familiar with his plans told POLITICO.
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“It’s happening. He said he was going to announce it tonight,” said a person familiar with Trump’s plans.
One senior administration official, who was not authorized to discuss details of the upcoming summit, said Trump’s speech was still in flux as of Tuesday morning and it was unclear how many specifics the president would get into. A White House spokeswoman declined comment, saying she didn't want to get ahead of the speech.
Should the meeting occur later this month as expected, it would be Trump’s second summit with Kim over the last year and the first time a U.S. president has twice met with the leader of the authoritarian regime. The two men held a historic first meeting in Singapore last June, during which they agreed on a framework for future negotiations, including that North Korea would begin to work toward “complete denuclearization.”
But several reports and intelligence officials have since claimed that North Korea has continued to surreptitiously strengthen its nuclear arsenal in the months since Kim and Trump first met. As recently as last week, senior U.S. intelligence leaders told a Senate panel they do not believe North Korea will completely dismantle its weapons program, which the Kim regime regards as essential to survival. Trump disputed the officials’ claims in a series of critical tweets.
“North Korea relationship is best it has ever been with U.S.,” he tweeted. “No testing, getting remains, hostages returned. Decent chance of Denuclearization…”
Trump administration officials have been quietly planning the president’s second summit with Kim for weeks. A senior White House official said the plans came together in mid-January when Trump welcomed Kim Yong Chol, a leading North Korean official, for a meeting in the Oval Office. U.S. special envoy for North Korea Stephen Biegun is also set to travel to North Korea this week to plan the high-level meeting.
The president also told anchors on Tuesday that he plans to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his time abroad later this month, though it was not clear if their bilateral sit-down would also occur in Vietnam. The person familiar with Trump’s plans said he encouraged the anchors to “tune in” to Tuesday night’s address for more details on a potential meeting with Xi.
A Trump-Xi meeting could come as U.S. officials continue to negotiate the terms of a trade deal with China ahead of a March 1 deadline imposed by both countries. Two administration officials cautioned that the terms for such a meeting had yet to be agreed upon and discussions could end at any moment depending on the status of the trade talks.
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