North Korea and US teams arrive in Hanoi to handle security and protocol for 2nd summit

Posted on : 2019-02-18 16:52 KST Modified on : 2019-02-18 16:52 KST
Biegun and Kim Hyok-chol to arrive this week to compose draft of joint statement
North Korean State Affairs Commission Chief Secretary Kim Chang-son in a car an hour after arriving at his accommodations in Hanoi
North Korean State Affairs Commission Chief Secretary Kim Chang-son in a car an hour after arriving at his accommodations in Hanoi

Working-level teams from North Korea and the US that are handling protocol and security issues for the second North Korea-US summit, which will be held in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Feb. 27-28, arrived in Hanoi and visited accommodations where the two leaders might stay. The negotiations about the summit’s agenda—including North Korea’s steps toward denuclearization and the US’ corresponding measures—are expected to be held this week, too. With the summit less than 10 days away, North Korea and the US appear to be speeding up their preparations on the ground.

“US officials in charge of protocol and security, including White House Deputy Chief of Staff Daniel Walsh, arrived in Hanoi on Feb. 15, while the North Korean working-level negotiating team, including North Korean State Affairs Commission Chief Secretary Kim Chang-son, arrived there on Feb. 16,” said an official in the South Korean government who is familiar with what is happening in Hanoi on Feb. 17.

The North Korean protocol and security team was accompanied by Kim Chol-gyu, deputy chief of the Supreme Guard Command, who was responsible for Kim Jong-un’s security during the inter-Korean summit at Panmunjom on Apr. 27, 2018; the inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang in Sept. 2018; and the North Korea-US summit in Singapore on June 12, 2018. Another member of the group is Pak Chol, a former member of North Korea’s delegation to the UN, who attended the working-level protocol and security talks leading up to the Singapore summit. Pak, who is reportedly a member of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) United Front Department, was present during a meeting at the White House on Jan. 18 between US President Donald Trump and WPK Vice Chairman and United Front Department Director Kim Yong-chol.

The US advance team took a look around the JW Marriott, while Kim Chang-son and his team reportedly visited and inspected a series of five-star hotels, including the Sofitel Legend Metropole, the Meliá and the InterContinental Westlake. During the summit in Singapore last year, the hotels that were visited separately by the protocol and security teams from the two countries were selected as the leaders’ accommodations while the hotel where the advance teams met was selected as the final site of the summit itself. The leaders’ accommodations are likely to once again be selected from among the hotels that the two countries’ protocol and security teams visited separately.

Some newspapers reported that Kim Chang-son and his team drove to the area of a smartphone production facility run by Samsung Electronics in Bac Ninh Province, north of Hanoi, to check on the route there on Feb. 17, but a local source denied that North Korea had contacted Samsung. “It’s not clear whether the Samsung factory was their destination or whether it was a stopping point on the way to another destination,” the source said.

US State Department Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun and North Korean State Affairs Commission Special Representative for US Affairs Kim Hyok-chol, who will be discussing the key agenda items for the North Korea-US summit, including the North’s steps toward denuclearization and the US’ corresponding measures, have not yet been spotted arriving in Hanoi. But considering that the summit is less than 10 days away, both figures are likely to arrive in Hanoi this week and hold working-level deliberations to compose a draft of the joint statement.

“The negotiations [between Biegun and Kim Hyok-chol] are supposed to continue in another country in Asia on the week beginning on Feb. 17,” Blue House Spokesperson Kim Eui-kyum said earlier while reporting on a meeting on Feb. 10 in which Biegun shared information with Blue House National Security Office Director Chung Eui-yong about the results of Biegun’s visit to North Korea on Feb. 6-8.

US media reports Kim Jong-un to arrive early to meet with Vietnamese president

In related news, Reuters ran a report from Hanoi on Feb. 16 that quoted three sources familiar with Kim Jong-un’s schedule as saying that Kim was planning to arrive in Vietnam on Feb. 25, two days before the North Korea-US summit on Feb. 27-28, to meet with Vietnamese President Nguyen Phu Trong. Since Trong is planning to visit Cambodia and Laos on Feb. 25-27, Kim Jong-un’s state visit to Vietnam was initially expected to take place after the North Korea-US summit.

“Because the Vietnamese president has prior plans, it doesn’t seem likely that a North Korea-Vietnam summit will be held,” said a government source who is well-informed about the situation on the ground in Hanoi.

“But since Kim Jong-un is an important guest, the Vietnamese government might rearrange the president’s schedule.”

By Noh Ji-won, staff reporter

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]

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