North Korea leader Kim Jong Un was on a train Sunday to Vietnam for his second summit with President Donald Trump, state media confirmed.
Late Saturday, an Associated Press reporter saw a green-and-yellow train similar to one used in the past by Kim cross into the Chinese border city of Dandong via a bridge.
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 as Washington and Pyongyang struggled with the sequencing of North Korea's nuclear disarmament and the removal of US-led sanctions against the North.
Kim's overseas travel plans are routinely kept secret. It could take more than two days for the train to travel thousands of kilometers (miles) through China to Vietnam.
Vietnam's Foreign Ministry announced Saturday that Kim would pay an official goodwill visit to the country "in the coming days" in response to an invitation by President Nguyen Phu Trong, who is also the general secretary of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party.
In his upcoming meeting with Trump, experts say Kim will seek a U.S. commitment for improved bilateral relations and partial sanctions relief while trying to minimize any concessions on his nuclear facilities and weapons.
While Kim wants to leverage his nuclear and missile program for economic and security benefits, there continue to be doubts on whether he's ready to fully deal away an arsenal that he may see as his strongest guarantee of survival.
Last year, North Korea suspended its nuclear and long-range missile tests and unilaterally dismantled its nuclear testing ground and parts of a rocket launch facility without the presence of outside experts, but none of those steps were seen as meaningful cutbacks to the North's weapons capability.
While North Korea has repeatedly demanded that the United States take corresponding measures, including sanctions relief, Washington has called for more concrete steps from Pyongyang toward denuclearisation.
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 for the Trump-Kim meeting, with the nearby Metropole Hotel as a backup. Streets around the two places have been beautified with flowers and the flags of North Korea, the U.S and Vietnam.
Workers were also putting final touches on the International Media Center. Vietnam's Foreign Ministry says some 2,600 members of the foreign press have registered for the event.
Also expected to land in Vietnam on Sunday was Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Lavrov will pay an official visit for a Russia-India-China ministerial conference, according to Interfax news agency.
Meanwhile, Vietnam has announced a traffic ban along Kim's possible arrival route.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)