DPRK, U.S. leaders meet in Hanoi for 2nd summit

U.S. President Donald Trump and top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un met Wednesday night in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi for their second summit to discuss concrete ways for peace on and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Kim and Trump shook hands and smiled in their first encounter at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hotel in Hanoi, where the two leaders were slated to briefly sit down one-on-one before having a social dinner, opening their two-day summit.

The handshaking was made with flags of the DPRK and the United States standing behind them. A banner hanging above the flags read "Hanoi Summit" both in English and Korean.

The summit came about eight months after the first Kim-Trump meeting in Singapore in June last year, where Trump pledged to provide security guarantees to the DPRK while Kim reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to a complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

The two leaders stood around for a moment for a photo opportunity, before sitting down at the same place for a brief one-on-one chat.

Noting "efforts and patience" were needed more than ever in the period that had passed, Kim said he was convinced that they can create an "outcome that everybody will welcome" in his second meeting with Trump.

There was some mistrust and misunderstanding standing in the way of the two leaders, Kim said, but they overcame the obstacles to meet again in Hanoi in 260 days or so.

Trump said he hoped his meeting with the DPRK leader would be "equal or greater" than their first summit.

The U.S. president said he had a "successful" first meeting with Kim, they had made "a lot of progress" and the greatest one was his good relationship with Kim. He added that the DPRK has tremendous, unbelievable and unlimited economic potential.

After the short appearance in front of journalists, Kim and Trump had a 20-minute one-on-one closed-door dialogue, before having a social dinner with their aides and translators present.

Trump was joined at the dinner by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney.

Accompanying Kim were Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the DPRK's ruling Workers Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee, and Ri Yong Ho, member of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee and foreign minister.

The two leaders were expected to try to hammer out a deal for the peace and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. They were slated to sit down again Thursday at a negotiating table for concrete ways to achieve the goal.

"As key parties (of the Korean Peninsula issue), the DPRK and the U.S. should take measures on the basis of mutual respect and meet each other halfway, taking into account and accommodating the reasonable concerns of each other," Lu Kang, a spokesperson of China's Foreign Ministry, said at a daily briefing Tuesday.

Lu said China had been playing and would continue to play its role, repeating China's main position on the peninsula issue -- to achieve denuclearization of the peninsula, and to achieve and safeguard lasting peace and stability of the peninsula and Northeast Asia.

Kim arrived first in Vietnam on Tuesday morning by a train that departed Pyongyang, the DPRK's capital, Saturday and cut across southern China to a Vietnamese border town. Then, he transferred to a limousine bound for Hanoi.

He became the first sitting DPRK leader in 55 years to make an official visit to the Southeast Asian country.

Trump landed in Hanoi on Tuesday night, staying in the J. W. Marriott Hotel in the Vietnamese capital. Kim's lodging is the Melia hotel, some minutes' drive from Trump's hotel.

Security was tightened near the hotels, surrounded by armed police and soldiers as well as international journalists and spectators hoping to catch a glimpse of the two leaders.