Vietnam to be host of 2nd summit for Kim, Trump

Vietnam is in the spotlight after its selection to host the second summit between Democratic People's Republic of Korea top leader Kim Jong-un and United States President Donald Trump.

On Tuesday, Trump used his biggest speech of the year, the State of the Union address, to announce that his second summit with Kim will take place in Danang, Vietnam, on Feb 27-28. Analysts and observers said this summit is highly anticipated because it is likely to be a more pragmatic one.

Although much work remains to be done toward peace on the Korean Peninsula, Trump said his relationship with Kim is a good one, citing the halt in DPRK nuclear testing and no new missile launches in 15 months as proof of progress.

According to Reuters, the US State Department said the choice of Vietnam as the venue also shows the possibility of moving beyond conflict and division toward a thriving partnership between Washington and Pyongyang.

Robert Palladino, the State Department spokesman, said at a news conference on Thursday that US-Vietnamese history itself has "reflected the possibility for peace and prosperity".

"We moved past conflict and division toward the thriving partnership we enjoy today," Palladino said.

The host country also welcomed the decision and vowed to make the meeting a success, according to media reports.

"Vietnam strongly supports dialogue to maintain peace, security and stability on the Korean Peninsula," Le Thi Thu Hang, spokeswoman for the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Wednesday.

"Vietnam is ready to make active contributions to and cooperate with relevant sides to ensure success for the second US-DPRK summit, thus helping realize the above-mentioned goal," she added.

Trump and Kim met for the first time in Singapore in June. Despite the hype of the landmark first summit, the one-day meeting produced only a vague declaration about a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula without describing when and how it would occur.

They signed a joint four-point document, which included a commitment to "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" and "security guarantees" from the United States, but implementation of the agreements reached at the historic meeting has been slow.

Li Nan, an associate research fellow of the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said discussions between the DPRK and the US on pragmatic ways to denuclearize would be the most noteworthy part of the second summit.

Kim and Trump could reach a deal concerning denuclearization, and might even discuss specific steps toward getting rid of weapons, Li said.

Though the DPRK has said it is committed to the hard work of "complete denuclearization" on the peninsula, Pyongyang still insists on "step-by-step" denuclearization, which Li said is in contradiction to Washington's proposition that challenges the DPRK to solve the problem once and for all. Li said step-by-step denuclearization is a bottom line issue for Pyongyang, and it will be difficult for the two sides to reach an agreement on this point at the summit.

Koh Yu-hwan, a Korean Peninsula expert at Seoul's Dongguk University, told the Associated Press that a potential deal could be reached at the summit through Pyongyang agreeing to dismantle key parts of its Nyongbyon nuclear complex, freeze its nuclear program and allow inspectors in, in exchange for the United States granting exemptions to sanctions for inter-Korean transactions.