DONG DANG, Vietnam — The Latest on the summit in Vietnam between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump (all times local):

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is being accompanied in Vietnam by a group of top lieutenants including his influential younger sister.

Kim arrived by train at the Dong Dang railway station on the China-Vietnam border on Tuesday and is on his way to Hanoi for a summit with President Donald Trump.

Kim’s younger sister Kim Yo Jong was seen before the leader stepped out of their special train and took a black limousine waiting for him at the train station.

Before Kim Jong Un’s arrival, North Korean officials who had arrived in Vietnam in advance, including his top representative for U.S. affairs, Kim Hyok Chol, had gathered at the train station.

Also accompanying Kim Jong Un is Kim Yong Chol, a former military intelligence chief who has been deeply involved in nuclear diplomacy since North Korea entered talks early last year.

After barrelling through China for three days on his green-and-yellow armoured train, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has switched to another mode of high-security transport after arriving in Vietnam.

He’s now travelling in a massive bulletproof Mercedes encircled by bodyguards.

After arriving at Vietnam’s Dong Dang Station, Kim shook hands with Vietnamese officials and waved to the crowd before stepping into the limousine. A dozen of crew-cut bodyguards flanked the vehicle and ran in formation as it slowly rolled out of the station and headed to Hanoi, where Kim will meet President Donald Trump for their second summit.

Kim’s bodyguards also ran alongside his limousine during his summit with Trump last June in Singapore and his summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in last April.

Kim Jong Un’s train has arrived in Vietnam for the North Korean leader’s second summit with Donald Trump.

Vietnamese troops in crisp white uniforms and black boots stood at attention Tuesday to welcome Kim on a red carpet beneath large North Korean and Vietnamese flags at the Dong Dang railway station on the China-Vietnam border. A crowd gathered along the road near the station to wave North Korean flags and bouquets of flowers on a cold, drizzling morning.

It wasn’t clear if Kim had visited any places in China on his trip from Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, to the border. Press reports speculate that he will drive the 170 kilometres to Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, ahead of his Wednesday meeting with Trump.. </s> HANOI, Vietnam — The Latest on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s travels to the summit with President Donald Trump in Vietnam (all times local):

A train similar to one used in the past by Kim Jong Un has entered China, possibly carrying the North Korean leader on a multiday journey to Vietnam’s capital for his summit with President Donald Trump.

An Associated Press reporter saw the green and yellow train cross into the Chinese border city of Dandong through a bridge on Saturday evening.

Russia’s TASS news agency reported hours earlier that Kim departed from the North Korean capital of Pyongyang on his personal train.

The Trump-Kim meeting is slated for Wednesday and Thursday in Hanoi. Their first summit last June in Singapore ended without substantive agreements on the North’s nuclear disarmament and triggered a months-long stalemate in negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang.

Vietnam has announced an unprecedented traffic ban along a possible arrival route of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ahead of his second summit with President Donald Trump in Hanoi next week.

The Communist Party’s mouthpiece Nhan Dan newspaper quoted the Roads Department as saying the ban will affect the 105-mile stretch of Highway One from Dong Dang, on the border with China, to Hanoi.

It implies Kim may take a train and disembark at the Dong Dang railway station and proceed by car to Hanoi. It is not known if he will travel by train from Pyongyang via China or fly to a nearby Chinese city. Kim’s overseas travel plans are routinely kept secret.

The summit is slated for Wednesday and Thursday. </s> HANOI, Vietnam -- Vietnam has announced an unprecedented traffic ban along a possible arrival route of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ahead of his second summit with President Donald Trump in Hanoi next week, state media reported.

The Communist Party's mouthpiece Nhan Dan newspaper late Friday quoted Vietnam's Department of Roads as saying the ban will first apply to trucks 10 tons or bigger, and vehicles with nine seats or more on the 170-kilometre (105-mile) stretch of Highway One from Dong Dang, the border town with China, to Hanoi from 7 p.m. on Monday to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, followed by a complete ban Tuesday on all vehicles from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The summit is slated for Wednesday and Thursday.

It gave no other details. The move implies that Kim may take a train and disembark at the Dong Dang railway station and proceed by car to Hanoi.

It is not known if he will travel by train from Pyongyang via China or fly to a nearby Chinese city. Kim's overseas travel plans are routinely kept secret.

On Saturday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Kim will pay an official goodwill visit to Vietnam "in the coming days" in response to the invitation of President Nguyen Phu Trong, who is also the general secretary of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam.

The People's Committee in Lang Son province, where the Dong Dang railway station is located, issued a statement Friday instructing the road operator to clean the stretch of the highway and suspend road works among other things to serve "a political task" on Feb. 24-28.

The second summit in Hanoi takes place following the historic meeting in Singapore last June where Kim and Trump reached a vaguely worded commitment from North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapon program.

Kim travelled to Singapore by plane on loan from China.

Hanoi has been gearing up for the summit with beefed up security. Officials say the colonial-era Government Guest House in central Hanoi is expected to be the venue of the meeting, with the nearby Metropole Hotel as a backup.

Streets around the two places have been beautified with flowers and flags of North Korea, the U.S and Vietnam.

Workers were also putting final touches on the International Media Center. The Foreign Ministry says some 2,600 members of the foreign press have registered for the event. </s> North Korea's will soon make an official visit to Vietnam, said Saturday as it beefed up security on the Chinese border where Kim is expected to cross by train ahead of his summit with US next week.

is hastily preparing for a second summit between Trump and Kim on February 27-28 in Hanoi, and sources have said the North Korean leader is likely to arrive ahead of the meeting for an official visit and to tour industrial zones.

" will pay an official visit to in the coming days," Vietnam's foreign ministry said Saturday in a post on its page, without providing dates.

has not yet publicly confirmed the summit with Trump, and routinely keeps Kim's shrouded in secrecy.

Several sources told AFP Kim is expected to arrive in by train ahead of the summit, stopping at the train station near the border and driving 170 kilometres to by car.

Vietnam on Friday announced the unprecedented move of closing the stretch of road from the station to on February 26 between 6:00 am and 2:00 pm, reported, suggesting Kim could travel on the road between those hours.

Soldiers were deployed to the train station on Saturday and along the road to Hanoi, according to AFP reporters at the scene, who spotted several military vehicles and in the area.

"We are doing security sweeps all the way from to Hanoi and we have to finish by February 24. We are working on orders for the arrival of an important delegation," a soldier told AFP, requesting anonymity.

Security personnel tried to prevent anyone from taking photos and videos in the area and soldiers screened everyone who entered the

The 4,000-kilometre rail journey from to Vietnam via could take two and a half days in Kim's dark green armoured train, which is reportedly outfitted with conference rooms and several sleeping chambers.

He is expected to pass through the Chinese city of Dandong, where guests at a hotel facing the border bridge from were suddenly asked to leave Friday. The hotel was closed Saturday for impromptu renovations.

This will be Kim's inaugural visit to Vietnam, and the first time a North Korean leader has travelled to the country since his grandfather Sung's trip in 1964.

Kim is expected to tack on a visit to and provinces, home to several industrial zones, sources told AFP. is home to a factory, a major South Korean investor and leading exporter from Vietnam.

With its glittering post-war growth, Vietnam has been lauded as an economic model for isolated which has suffered under punishing sanctions.

is pushing for an easing of those sanctions, but Trump has said he will have to make a "meaningful" gesture on the nuclear front if he wants to see them lifted.

Trump told reporters on Friday that reducing the presence of US forces in is "not one of the things on the table" and said he would not reveal his ahead of the meeting.

Though would be happy to see a reduction of US troops in would face pushback from and Tokyo, whose conservative government is deeply wary of the North's intentions.

Teams from the and North Korea are already in Hanoi hashing out pre-summit preparations.

US to Pyongyang and his North Korean counterpart Chol were both seen at the same this week, though neither side confirmed if the pair met face to face. </s> DANDONG: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's armoured train arrived in China late Saturday ahead of his summit with US President Donald Trump in Vietnam , according to media reports.The train arrived in the border city of Dandong after 9 pm local time (1300 GMT), according to South Korea 's Yonhap news agency and the specialist outlet NK News , though it was not known whether Kim was on the train.The train's crossing into China follows days of speculation over Kim's travel plans, which remain shrouded in secrecy, as his team gathered in Hanoi ahead of the talks expected next Wednesday and Thursday.Security was tight before the train's arrival, with police cordoning off the riverfront some 100 metres (yards) from the bridge with tape and metal barriers, and leading an AFP journalist out of the area.Guests at a hotel facing the rail bridge from North Korea were suddenly asked to leave on Friday and told it was closed Saturday for impromptu renovations."The train is long and crossed the bridge slower than the tourist train, but its definitely him, there's a lot of police presence," an unidentified source told NK News.Windows on the train were blacked out, the source said, with only headlights turned on as it crossed.Kim has previously travelled in an armoured train to Beijing and, if he is on board, may stop in the Chinese capital on what could be an epic journey to Vietnam, meeting President Xi Jinping prior to his second face-to-face with the US president.Or he could save the meeting for his return trip to debrief his country's sole major ally.The Hanoi summit comes after Trump and Kim met in June in Singapore, producing a vaguely worded agreement on denuclearisation, but progress has since stalled, with the two sides disagreeing over what the agreement meant.Kim travelled to Singapore last year on a plane lent by Beijing, and it remained unclear whether he would ride all the way to Hanoi by rail -- a nearly 4,000-kilometre (2,500-mile) journey taking more than 60 hours from Pyongyang.Several sources said Kim was expected to arrive in Vietnam by train, stopping at the Dong Dang train station near the China border, then driving on to Hanoi. </s> HANOI (Reuters) - When North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrives in Hanoi on Tuesday for his summit with U.S. President Donald Trump later this week, he will be the first leader of the isolated country to visit Vietnam since his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, visited in 1964.

Vietnam's model of reform is being widely touted as the economic path for impoverished North Korea to follow as the United States leads efforts to curb Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program and bring it back to the international fold.

But Vietnam's transformation has required political change and levels of individual freedoms that would require major reforms for the Kim family, which is afforded godlike status by state propaganda.

In imagery that could have powerful propaganda value at home, Kim Jong Un will mimic aspects of his grandfather's trip to Vietnam by traveling to some of the same locations visited by the elder Kim, two sources with direct knowledge of security and logistics planning told Reuters.

"This is legacy politics," said Christopher Green, a North Korea expert with the International Crisis Group.

"North Korea will want to play up Kim’s succession to the role of his grandfather, who successfully built up North Korea's international legitimacy after the establishment of the state."

Even Kim Jong Un's multi-day train journey through North Korea and thousands of kilometers across China to reach Vietnam is similar to the grand train voyages his grandfather once took.

His armored train, complete with carriages decked out with pink leather chairs and big-screen televisions, is expected to reach Vietnam on Tuesday morning.

One of the destinations in Kim's itinerary is the coastal northern Vietnamese province of Quang Ninh, the sources said. The province is home to Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO world heritage site dotted with steep-sided islands which attracted over 12 million tourists last year.

Kim Il Sung visited Ha Long Bay in 1964 during his second visit to Vietnam.

Kim's train is expected to stop at the Vietnamese border station of Dong Dang, where he will disembark and travel the 170 km (105 miles) to Hanoi by car, sources told Reuters last Wednesday.

Vietnamese media on Monday showed red carpet being rolled out ready for Kim's arrival at the Dong Dang train station.

Over the weekend, Vietnam announced that it will ban traffic on the road from the station to Hanoi on Tuesday.

Kim Jong Un may be looking to learn from Vietnam's experience of manufacturing products for international companies, meaning a visit to a factory could also be on the cards.

A source with direct knowledge of the plan said a high level North Korean delegation is scheduled to visit a plant operated by start-up Vietnamese automaker Vinfast in Haiphong province on Wednesday afternoon.

The plan is subject to change, the source said.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics operates a massive smartphone factory in Bac Ninh, another province popular with Vietnamese and international manufacturers.

A source with direct knowledge of the matter said Samsung Electronics had not been informed of any visit by Kim, or instructed by Vietnamese authorities to host him.

In Hanoi, North Korean and U.S. flags could be seen on along a main thoroughfare and bridge crossing the Red River into the city.

Trump and Kim are expected to meet for their second summit in Hanoi's Government Guesthouse, an elegant, colonial-era building in the city center, or at the nearby Metropole Hotel, sources have told Reuters.

Dozens of North Korean security men with identical haircuts and suits marched off an aircraft at Hanoi airport on Sunday, as Vietnamese soldiers searched through shrubbery outside the Metropole.

Trump will arrive in Vietnam on Tuesday evening, Vietnam's foreign ministry said on Monday. Trump will meet Vietnam's president, who is also general secretary of the ruling Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong, on Wednesday morning, the ministry said.

Trump on Monday appeared to play down any hope of a major breakthrough at the two day summit, saying he would be happy as long as North Korea maintained its pause on weapons testing. </s> HANOI (DPA) - North Korean and United States officials landed in Hanoi on Saturday (Feb 16) as all three countries prepare for the upcoming summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, state media reported.

The two delegations are expected to organise logistical coordination for the summit, the VnExpress news site reported.

Hanoi police also said they would dispatch 96 patrol groups to crack down on crime in the 10 days preceding the summit. City landmarks will also be put on round-the-clock police surveillance.

Security for the summit is expected to be tight. While the risk of terrorism is considered extremely low in Vietnam, the capital's density makes the city harder for bodyguards on both the North Korean and US teams to secure their bosses.

Mr Trump and Mr Kim previously met in Singapore in June 2018 following a heated exchange of words, with both threatening war between their nuclear armed states.

Even though Mr Trump has portrayed the first meeting as resolving conflict over the North Korean nuclear programme, Pyongyang has done little to denuclearise the peninsula and US intelligence officials say the country is unlikely to totally disarm.

But as the second summit looms, Vietnam, a former wartime foe of the US, has offered to mediate discussions between Pyongyang and Washington, urging both sides to show restraint.

Speaking in Hanoi in July 2018, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he wished for North Korea to replicate Vietnam's economic development and reconciliation with the US. </s> HANOI, Vietnam — The Latest on the summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump (all times local):

President Donald Trump is calling the relationship between the U.S. and Vietnam an “example” of what can become of North Korea if it gives up its nuclear weapons.

Trump paid a courtesy call Wednesday to Vietnamese President Nguyen Phu Trong ahead of his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi.

Trump says, “We both felt very good about having this very important summit in Vietnam because you really are an example as to what can happen, with good thinking.”

The Vietnamese leader says his country has “been making all necessary preparations to ensure the best conditions for the success of this very special meeting.”

Trump is thanking Vietnam for hosting the summit and for agreeing to new trade deals with American companies, including Boeing.

U.S. President Donald Trump is meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart hours before he is set to sit down with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

Trump is greeting Vietnamese President Nguyen Phu Trong, whose country is hosting the second summit between the leaders of the two technically-warring nations.

The two leaders are set to sign a commercial trade agreement Wednesday before Trump is to meet with Vietnam’s prime minister.

Trump’s courtesy call to the host nation’s leadership is meant to provide Kim with a visualization of a potential future should he give up his country’s nuclear weapons in a deal with the U.S. After a decade of bloody conflict that ended more than four decades ago, the U.S. and Vietnam are now economic and strategic partners.

President Donald Trump’s eldest son is accusing Democrats of trying to distract his father during his summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

Donald Trump Jr. told Fox News on Tuesday that he believed the Democrats deliberately scheduled the congressional testimony of Michael Cohen, the president’s former fixer, opposite the summit in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Trump Jr. said that the Democrats were trying to “counterprogram the kind of progress” that could be achieved in the Vietnam gathering and that it was evidence of the “disdain” they hold for the president.

He also argued that it was proof the Democrats were more interested in scoring political points than in national security by attempting to “stymie” the denuclearization talks.

Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for crimes including a campaign finance violation that he says was at the direction of the president.

President Donald Trump says Vietnam, the site of his second round of nuclear talks with Kim Jong Un, is thriving economically and that North Korea could, too, if it would give up its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Before sitting down with Kim later Wednesday in Hanoi, Trump tweeted that “North Korea would be the same, and very quickly, if it would denuclearize. The potential is AWESOME, a great opportunity, like almost none other in history, for my friend Kim Jong Un.”

In a second tweet, Trump took a shot at Democrats in Washington, saying they should stop telling him what to do with North Korea and “ask themselves instead why they didn’t do ‘it’ during eight years of the Obama Administration?” </s> HANOI/ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in Vietnam on Tuesday for a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump where they will try to reach an agreement on a North’s Korean pledge to give up its nuclear weapons program.

Trump is due to arrive in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, on Tuesday evening.

Trump will meet Kim for a brief one-on-one conversation on Wednesday evening, followed by a social dinner, at which they will each be accompanied by two guests and interpreters, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters on Air Force One.

She said that would be followed by more meetings between the two leaders on Thursday.

Their talks come eight months after their historic summit in Singapore, the first between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader.

While there is no real expectation that the second meeting will bring a final deal on ridding North Korea of nuclear weapons that threaten the United States, there are some hopes it could lead to a declaration that the 1950-53 Korean War is at last formally over.

But the United States would expect significant movement by Kim toward denuclearization in return.

In Singapore, Kim pledged to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, but the vague agreement struck there has produced few concrete results. U.S. Democratic senators and security officials have warned Trump against cutting a deal that would do little to curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

Kim, who traveled from the North Korean capital by train, arrived at the station in the Vietnamese town of Dong Dang after crossing over the border from China.

Vietnamese officials were on hand to receive him at the station with a red-carpet including a guard of honor and North Korean and Vietnamese flags flying.

Kim was seen leaving the train in Dong Dang and getting into a Mercedes Benz vehicle for the 170 km (105 miles) journey to the capital, Hanoi, by car.

He waved from the car before setting off to young people lining the street waving Vietnamese and North Korean flags.

About a dozen body guards ran along side his car as he set off.

Both Kim and Trump are also due to hold separate talks with Vietnamese leaders.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also arrived in Hanoi, on Tuesday, a reporter traveling with him said.

Pompeo has been Trump’s top envoy in his efforts to improve ties with the reclusive North and has made several trips to Pyongyang to negotiate steps toward ending its nuclear program.

Trump told reporters he and Kim would have “a very tremendous summit”.

Tweeting on Monday, he stressed the benefits to North Korea if it gave up its nuclear weapons. “With complete Denuclearization, North Korea will rapidly become an Economic Powerhouse. Without it, just more of the same. Chairman Kim will make a wise decision!” Trump said.

In a speech on Sunday night, Trump, however, appeared to play down any hope of a major breakthrough at the Hanoi summit, saying he would be happy as long as North Korea maintained its pause on weapons testing.

“I’m not in a rush. I don’t want to rush anybody,” he said. “I just don’t want testing. As long as there’s no testing, we’re happy.”

North Korea conducted its last nuclear test in September 2017 and last tested an intercontinental ballistic missile in November 2017.

A South Korean presidential spokesman told reporters in Seoul on Monday that the two sides might be able to agree to a formal end of the Korean War, which ended in an armistice not a peace treaty, a move North Korea has long sought.

While a formal peace treaty may be a long way off, the two sides have discussed the possibility of a political declaration stating that the war over.
Vietnam tightens security at its rail station on the Chinese border ahead of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's visit to Hanoi for his summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.