Trump Plans One-on-One Meeting With North Korea’s Kim, Officials Say

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump will meet one-on-one with Kim Jong Un next week in Hanoi in addition to a meal and lengthier negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear arsenal in which the two leaders will be joined by aides, according to senior administration officials.

Trump plans to travel to the Vietnam capitol for his second summit with Kim to discuss North Korea abandoning its nuclear arsenal. U.S. negotiators led by Trump’s special representative to North Korea, Stephen Biegun, are in Hanoi this week for preliminary talks with their Pyongyang counterparts.

The officials briefed reporters Thursday ahead of Trump’s trip on condition they not be identified.

One of the officials said the U.S. hopes to make rapid progress toward Kim’s regime giving up its nuclear arsenal, rather than incremental steps, and that the U.S. seeks a declaration providing a full accounting of North Korea’s nuclear forces and facilities -- a move that analysts say is necessary in order to verify any steps the country takes to disarm.

The officials declined to comment when asked whether the Trump administration is considering opening a diplomatic office in North Korea. The two countries have never officially had diplomatic relations.

To contact the reporter on this story: Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Mike Dorning

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