UPDATED: Trump, Kim look for 'right deal' at nuclear summit
Published Wednesday, February 27, 2019 9:34PM ESTHANOI, Vietnam -- President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un inched toward normalizing relations between their still technically-warring nations Thursday as the American leader tamped down expectations that their summit talks would yield an agreement by the reclusive country to take concrete steps toward ending its nuclear program.
The summit was held against a backdrop of swirling questions: What was Kim really willing to give up? What may Trump demand in the face of rising domestic turmoil? And could the meeting yield far more concrete results than the leaders' first summit, a meeting in Singapore less than a year ago that was long on dramatic imagery but short on tangible results?
Earlier, accompanied only by translators, the unlikely pair -- a 72-year-old brash billionaire and a 35-year-old reclusive autocrat -- displayed a familiarity with one another as they began the day's negotiations. After a 40-minute private meeting, the leaders went for a stroll on the Hotel Metropole's lush grounds, chatting as they walked by a swimming pool before being joined by aides to continue talks.
Skeptics say such agreements would leave in place a significant portion of North Korea's nuclear-tipped missiles while robbing the United States of its negotiating leverage going forward. Asked if this summit would yield a political declaration to end the Korean War, Trump said Wednesday: "We'll see."
Trump, unable to ignore the drama playing out thousands of miles away, tweeted that Cohen "did bad things unrelated to Trump" and "is lying in order to reduce his prison time." Cohen has been sentenced to three years in prison for lying to Congress.
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