Trump, Kim to meet for second time in Vietnam Feb. 27-28

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U.S. President Donald Trump plans to meet Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) leader Kim Jong Un February 27-28 in Vietnam, the U.S. president announced on Tuesday during his State of the Union address.

"If I had not been elected president of the United States, we would right now, in my opinion, be in a major war with North Korea (DPRK)," Trump said.

"Much work remains to be done, but my relationship with Kim Jong Un is a good one. Chairman Kim and I will meet again on February 27th and 28th in Vietnam."

U.S. President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address at the Capitol in Washington, DC, February 5, 2019. /VCG Photo

The president did not elaborate on which exact city in Vietnam, yet sources say major cities Hanoi and Da Nang are in high odds.

The summit between Trump and Kim, if held as planned, will be their second face-to-face meeting following their landmark summit in Singapore last June. Both sides have said they look forward to it.

Plenty of preparation

The U.S.'s special envoy for the DPRK Stephen Biegun is set to visit Pyongyang, capital of the DPRK, from Seoul tomorrow to finalize details of the summit, according to the U.S. State Department. Biegun is expected to meet with his newly appointed counterpart, Kim Hyok Chol.

The meeting aims to "advance further progress on the commitments the President and Chairman Kim made in Singapore: complete denuclearization, transforming U.S.-DPRK relations, and building a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula," read the statement.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with DPRK senior official Kim Yong Chol in Washington, DC, June 18, 2018. /VCG Photo

In mid-January, DPRK's senior diplomat Kim Yong Chol traveled to Washington and talked with Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

U.S. officials later released a statement saying that the leaders "had a good discussion," and progress for the second summit was made.

The United States is certainly not strange for Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea Central Committee. The DPRK senior official traveled there several times in 2018 to push for the first summit between the two sides.

Trump and Kim got off on the wrong foot, with the U.S. president calling the DPRK leader "little rocket man" and saying that "threats" from Pyongyang will be "met with fire and fury." Meanwhile, Kim threatened to send missiles towards U.S. Guam, and called Trump a "mentally deranged U.S. dotard."

U.S. President Donald Trump (R) shakes hands with DPRK leader Kim Jong Un at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore, June 12, 2018. /VCG Photo

Last year tensions on the Korean Peninsula, and between the two heads of the state themselves, eased. They softened their rhetoric ahead of their first meeting in June and from then on the two exchanged personal letters.

The leaders signed a joint four-point document which included a commitment to "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" and "security guarantees" from the United States, but implementation of the agreements reached at the historic meeting has since been slow.