In June 2018, United States President Donald Trump and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un made a historic summit which was hosted by Singapore. As negotiations between the two countries continue to push through, there are rumors claiming that the next summit will be hosted by the Southeast Asian country of Vietnam.
Although the White House has yet to confirm these reports, some officials in the Trump administration have already hinted at the possibility of picking Vietnam as the setting of the next Trump-Kim summit which will happen less than a year before the first one.
On Friday, U.S. President Trump meets with Vice Chairman Kim Yong Chol who is also one of the top aides and former spy chief of North Korea's Kim. Following the meeting, the White House confirmed that the next meeting between President Trump and Supreme Leader Kim will take place sometime in late February. While the timeline of the summit had been vaguely confirmed, the location has yet been clarified.
Prior to the meeting, people with insider knowledge about it told Reuters that Vietnam is kee into hosting the meeting. The country was already reportedly making arrangements and preparations to receive the two leaders. As such, some observers have noted that Vietnam might be picked as the ideal host of the next summit.
Should the next Trump-Kim summit take place in Vietnam, there are two possible locations where the meeting will be held. First is in Vietnam's capital city of Hanoi located in the northern part of the country. Another possible location is the city of Danang which is located in the central part of Vietnam.
Despite the lack of confirmation about the possible summit, a Vietnamese government official told the AFP that "logistical preparations" for the upcoming meeting had already begun. On Thursday, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phic said that while a final decision has yet to be confirmed, "we will do our best to facilitate the meeting."
Vietnam has been quite busy in terms of building diplomatic relations with foreign countries, especially towards the United States. The upcoming Trump-Kim summit is a good chance for the country to highlight its commitment to the United States. In 2016, U.S. scrapped the arms embargo against Vietnam and in 2017 an American Navy aircraft carrier visited the country for the first time since the end of the Vietnam War.
