Singapore and Vietnam are likely to be shortlisted to host a second summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and United States President Donald Trump, South Korean Foreign Affairs Ministry officials said today, according to the Korea Herald.
“(The venues you should pay attention to) are those mentioned by media including Vietnam, Singapore and Hawaii,” one ministry official was quoted by the Korea Herald as saying on condition of anonymity.
“But Hawaii is said to be an unrealistic location, as it doesn’t have a North Korean embassy there,” another official added.
The site that Kim and Trump will pick for the next meeting has been attracting keen attention, especially after South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Thursday that the summit will take place soon. Trump said on Sunday that the US was “negotiating a location” and that he expected the summit to take place in January or February.
Singapore, which hosted the first Trump-Kim summit last June, and Vietnam are within flying distance of the North Korean leader’s plane, the Chammae-1, which is capable of flying a distance of 7,000km.
This matches Mr Trump’s comment that the summit will be held “within plane distance”.
Vietnam is known to have expressed an interest in hosting the meeting while Singapore is where the first historic summit between the two leaders was held in June.
On Tuesday, CNN reported that White House scouting teams visited Bangkok, Hanoi and Hawaii to inspect whether the locations are suitable for the meeting.
