South Korean media reported on Friday (January 11) that Singapore and Vietnam are prone to be on the short list of venues for the second summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“(Places to watch out for) are those mentioned in the media, including Vietnam, Singapore and Hawaii,” a South Korean foreign ministry official told the Korean Herald on condition of anonymity.
“But Hawaii is considered an unrealistic location because there is no North Korean embassy there,” the report quoted one other official as saying.
While the South Korean government had hoped that the truce village of Panmunjom, positioned within the demilitarized zone between North Korea and South Korea, would host the second summit, that is unlikely, one official told the Korean Herald.
“We would like to hold a meeting in Panmunjom, but the likelihood of it becoming a reality seems slim,” one official told the news agency.
The leaders of North and South Korea held a gathering within the village where the truce was agreed last April, the third such meeting because the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Thursday that a second United States-North Korea summit shall be held “soon.”
Meanwhile, it was reported earlier this week that US State Department officials had recently met several times with their North Korean counterparts in Hanoi to debate planning for a second summit between the 2 countries, fueling speculation that the Vietnamese capital could host the event.
Trump later told reporters that the 2 countries were “negotiating a location” for the second summit and that it will be announced “probably within the not too distant future.”
During the historic first summit last June, Kim reaffirmed his “firm and unwavering commitment to the entire denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” outlined in a joint document signed by him and Trump.
Trump, in turn, pledged to offer North Korea with security guarantees. The document doesn’t indicate what these guarantees could also be.
Before last yr’s summit in Singapore, a South Korean presidential official told reporters that Singapore was chosen as the positioning partly since it was inside an inexpensive distance and flight time from Pyongyang.
Kim’s Ilyushin-62M personal jet has a maximum range of 10,000 km, which implies Singapore, Hanoi and Hawaii are inside range.
However, its secondary Ilyushin-76 transport plane cannot fly greater than 3,000 km without refueling whether it is carrying a full load.
Source: Channel NewsAsia
