US and North Korean negotiators to meet again before second summit in Hanoi

The top US envoy for North Korea returned from three days of talks in Pyongyang and will meet again with his North Korean counterpart before the second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Earlier, Mr Trump said his planned summit will take place in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam.

Stephen Biegun, the US special representative for North Korea, met with South Korean foreign minister Kang Kyung-wha and Seoul’s chief nuclear envoy Lee Do-hoon on Saturday to brief them on his negotiations with North Korea.

“Our discussions were productive,” Mr Biegun, said while meeting Ms Kang.

“The president is very much looking forward to taking next steps. We have some hard work to do with DPRK between now and then. I am confident if both sides stay committed we can make real progress here,” he said, referring to North Korea by its formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

In Pyongyang, Mr Biegun and Kim Hyok Chol, North Korea’s special representative for US affairs, to discuss “advancing Trump and Kim’s Singapore summit commitments of complete denuclearisation, transforming US-DPRK relations, and building a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula,” the State Department said in a statement.

It said that Mr Biegun and Mr Kim agreed to meet again before the leaders’ second summit, scheduled for February 27-28 in Hanoi.

Mr Trump tweeted the venue on Friday in Washington, saying Mr Biegun had just left North Korea after a “productive meeting” on the summit.

Mr Trump added: “I look forward to seeing Chairman Kim & advancing the cause of peace!”

The president had previously announced Vietnam as the summit location, but the city had not been identified.

Mr Biegun is thought to have discussed specific disarmament steps that North Korea could promise at the Vietnam summit and what corresponding measures the United States is willing to take.

US-led negotiations aimed at stripping North Korea of its nuclear weapons programme has made little headway since the first Kim-Trump summit in Singapore last June, when Mr Kim pledged to work toward the “complete denuclearisation” of the Korean Peninsula, without providing a clear timetable.

Experts say Mr Kim is determined to win relief from US-led sanctions to help revive his country’s troubled economy, while Mr Trump, faced with domestic problems such as the Russian investigation, needs foreign policy achievements.

If the second summit fails to produce a breakthrough, scepticism about the current nuclear negotiations will grow. Some experts say North Korea is trying to use the negotiations to weaken the sanctions and buy time to perfect its weapons programme.

Mr Trump also tweeted: “North Korea, under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, will become a great Economic Powerhouse. He may surprise some but he won’t surprise me, because I have gotten to know him & fully understand how capable he is. North Korea will become a different kind of Rocket – an Economic one!”