President Trump will hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Feb. 27 and 28 in Vietnam, the president announced Tuesday night.
During his State of the Union address, Mr. Trump said his administration has made great progress in nuclear negotiations with the reclusive state and said a second meeting offers a chance to move forward toward a lasting denuclearization agreement.
“Much work remains to be done, but my relationship with Kim Jong-un is a good one. And Chairman Kim and I will meet again on February 27 and 28 in Vietnam,” the president said.
Mr. Trump first met with Mr. Kim last summer in Singapore in a historic meeting that the White House cast as a pivotal moment in the relationship between the two nations.
The announcement of a second summit comes as top U.S. and North Korean officials negotiate behind the scenes toward a deal. While Mr. Trump has claimed great progress — he claimed in the immediate aftermath of the first meeting with Mr. Kim that North Korea was no longer a nuclear threat — regional analysts and international watchdogs have said Pyongyang has done little to actually dismantle its nuclear weapons program.
United Nations experts on Tuesday, for example, said that North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs “remain intact,” with Pyongyang recently dispersing aspects of them to prevent “decapitation” strikes.
In his State of the Union address, the president cast himself as a successful negotiator who not only has put North Korea on the path toward denuclearization but also has kept the U.S. out of another war.
“If I had not been elected President of the United States, we would right now, in my opinion, be in a major war with North Korea with potentially millions of people killed,” he said.