FILE PHOTO: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks at the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces on occasion of the 71st anniversary of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) in Pyongyang, North Korea in this February 8, 2019 KCNA Photo. KCNA via REUTERS
February 23, 2019
By Khanh Vu and James Pearson
HANOI (Reuters) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will make an official visit to Vietnam in “coming days”, its foreign ministry said on Saturday, as the Southeast Asian country prepares for his summit with U.S. President Donald Trump next week in the capital, Hanoi.
Kim is visiting at the invitation of Nguyen Phu Trong, the president and general secretary of the ruling Communist Party, the ministry said in a statement, but gave no further details.
The Hanoi summit on Feb. 27 and 28 follows the two leaders’ historic June meeting in Singapore.
North Korea’s state media have yet to confirm either Kim’s trip to Vietnam or his summit with Trump.
On Feb. 26, Vietnam will ban traffic on the road Kim is expected to take to Hanoi from a train station on the Chinese border, state media said.
But it is also preparing a plan to receive Kim by air, a source with direct knowledge of the matter separately told Reuters.
The preferred location for the summit is the Government Guesthouse, a colonial-era building in central Hanoi, three sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
They said the Metropole Hotel will be a backup location for the summit and Kim could possibly stay in the Melia hotel during his visit. A Reuters witness saw workers laying communication cables in the streets behind the Metropole late on Friday.
At the same time, some foreign media organizations received a note from Vietnam’s foreign ministry prohibiting live broadcasts in and around the Melia hotel and Hoan Kiem lake in the center of Hanoi.
The JW Marriott hotel, where Trump is widely expected to stay, will also be out of bounds to live broadcasts, according to a copy of the note reviewed by Reuters.
Several hotels visited by Reuters on Saturday around Hoan Kiem lake, a popular tourist spot in the Vietnamese capital, said they had been told by the authorities to restrict access to their rooftops.
(Additional reporting by Minh Nguyen, Kham Nguyen and Ju-min Park; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Jacqueline Wong)
