With its literary past, the Vietnamese government recognised the potential of the Metropole Hotel as a draw for high-paying foreign tourists LINH PHAM/GETTY IMAGES

William Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene wrote books there, Charlie Chaplin stayed in a suite on his honeymoon, and Jane Fonda was a guest during her controversial Vietnam War visit, which earned her the nickname “Hanoi Jane”.

The Metropole Hotel, where Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump began their two-day summit meeting, is one of the most famous, glamorous, and literary hotels in Asia.

It was opened in 1901 under French colonial rule and maintained its opulence even under the country’s communist governments. Maugham wrote parts of his 1935 travel book The Gentleman in the Parlour there, although he was sniffy about Hanoi, declaring languorously that “I found nothing much to interest me” in the city.

The following year Chaplin took his new bride, Paulette Goddard,…</s>The streets of Hanoi are lined with armed soldiers and military vehicles, and packed with well-wishers eager to witness history.

WHEN Lee Parry heard that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump would meet in Hanoi, he knew that he wanted to be part of the action and soon booked a trip. He joined the Trump-Kim Vietnam Summit Tour being put on this week by a travel company whose slogan offers "destinations your mother would rather you stayed away from" - including North Korea.

The trip to the Vietnamese capital is not exactly a daring one, but a chance for visitors to be part of the flurry surrounding Mr Trump and Mr Kim's second meeting this week. "It's a lot better than seeing it on Twitter or Facebook," said Mr Parry, 36, a British student living in China. "To be at the forefront of that and to get to see it in the flesh was too good to pass up."

On the agenda are several well-trodden stops on the Hanoi tourist trail: the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, the war museum and the former "Hanoi Hilton" jail where American prisoners of war including John McCain were held during the Vietnam War. Also included are some summit-specific sites such as the Melia Hotel, where Mr Kim is expected to stay.

"If it ends up being successful, if it ends up being a good summit, we've witnessed history in the making," said Young Pioneer Tours (YPT) director Gareth Johnson. YPT is the firm that took US student Otto Warmbier to North Korea, where he was convicted of subversive activities for trying to steal a propaganda poster and detained for 18 months, dying shortly after being released.

Mr Kim arrived in Hanoi on Tuesday following a marathon 4,000 km journey through China on his trademark olive green armoured train.

The capital's streets were lined with armed soldiers and military vehicles - highly unusual for a foreign leader's visit to Vietnam. Hanoi's historic downtown was also packed with well-wishers who, like the YPT group, were eager to witness history. For some, it was a repeat affair. "I went to Singapore for the first summit and now I'm here because I'm just wishing for the best. I hope they make a good connection here," said a South Korean tourist, waving the Vietnamese flag.

Vietnam's national railway service got in on the action too, offering all journalists registered to cover the summit free train travel until the end of March. Also seeking to make the most of the event, Vietnam will unveil a special stamp collection on Tuesday to mark the Hanoi summit. AFP</s>United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday told North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un that his country has tremendous economic potential.

IMAGE: US President Donald Trump gestures as he and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sit down for a dinner during the second US-North Korea summit at the Metropole Hotel in Hanoi.

CNN quoted Trump as saying, “I think your country has tremendous economic potential. I think you will have a tremendous future for your country, you’re a great leader. We will help it to happen.”

The two leaders met for a second summit in Vietnam’s Hanoi and Trump made these comments during a dinner with Kim.

The North Korean leader said that his second meeting with the US president was possible because of the “courageous political decision” taken by Trump.

IMAGE: US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shake hands before their one-on-one chat.

While addressing reporters on Wednesday, Kim said that there had been “a lot of thinking, effort and patience” between now and last June.

Trump and Kim met in June last year for their first-ever summit in Singapore.

Kim further asserted that the “outside world” has “misunderstood” the US-North Korean relationship in the period after the Singapore summit. He also expressed hope that the Hanoi summit delivers “an outcome welcome by everyone”.

When quizzed if he’d walked back his vow to insist upon the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, Trump said he had not.

IMAGE: People watch a TV broadcasting a news report on a meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump, in Seoul, South Korea.

When questioned about his plan to declare an end to the Korean War, Trump said, “We will see.”

On Wednesday, Trump also held a meeting with Vietnam’s President Nguyen Phu Trong and thanked the country’s leadership for agreeing to host the second US-North Korea Summit.

Talking to the media after the meeting, he promoted the idea of a prosperous North Korea by citing the “good example” of Communist Vietnam.

IMAGE: A man walks while holding a painting of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Trump chose Hanoi for the summit to show Kim that old enemies could be friends of the US after it mends its ways.

The US has reinforced that sanctions would only be eased once full denuclearisation is achieved by Pyongyang -- a stand which the US stuck to even with the second summit drawing near.

Unlike the last summit in Singapore, Trump and Kim are expected to address a joint press conference after the meeting.</s>North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was afraid of flying and like his father Kim Il-sung, he preferred to travel by train. Since the creation of the state, all three North Korean leaders have used high-security armored trains for domestic and international travel. Kim Il-sung even traveled by train to every socialist country in Eastern Europe in 1974. He traveled via China, through the Soviet Union and stopped in Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Romania. Kim Jong-il travelled 2,800 miles to Ulan-Ude in Russia in 2011 to meet Dmitry Medvedev and it is commonly believed that he died on board a train in December of that year.

The famous olive green armored train made the news again this week as Kim Jong-un made his way to Hanoi for his meeting with President Trump. The following infographic provides key information about North Korea’s state-train and according to intelligence reports (information about the train is not readily available), Kim has 90 armored carriages at his disposal. When he travels somewhere, there are actually three trains – an advance security one and a third carrying bodyguards and supplies in addition to his own. All that armor does have a drawback though and the train’s speed is now estimated to only be 37 mph. That means Kim’s long 2,800-mile journey to Hanoi is thought to have taken two and a half days. In the future, it might be less stressful for him to travel to his next international summit on an Air China 747 like he did when he went to Singapore.</s>HANOI—This week’s talks between President Trump and North Korean leaderKim Jong Un are a logistical headache for the host, Vietnam.

Officials closed a highway to the capital from the Chinese border, where Mr. Kim got off his armored train and was driven into Hanoi among a phalanx of motorcyclists and armored vehicles. Traffic ground to halt as he traveled back and forth from his hotel to the North Korean Embassy.</s>Talks Between Trump And Kim Jong Un Resume As Summit Enters Final Day

On the other side of the world, President Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un are set to begin talks in Hanoi Vietnam about steps North Korea might be willing to take to denuclearize.</s>Leader of Vietnam, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, has said security is the top priority in the second summit between the two world leaders, which could be why orders are being sent to ensure activists don’t cause trouble. The summit hopes to find solutions to North Korea’s nuclear weapon programme and has started by the US president calling his North Korean counterpart “a great leader”. Hanoi has even called itself a “city for peace” as it hosts the significant summit.

One activist, known as Anh Chi, said security officials had even been waiting for him outside his home and had even asked him not to take pictures of the police. He said: “They follow me everywhere I go and warn me that I may be detained if I cross the river into the (city) centre.” Another anti-Communist protester Dao Thu Hue has said police have been restricting her movements.

She said: “They don't say why they are blocking my house, only say 'we are following orders’”. Another activist Mai Khoi was locked insider her house for several hours after she posted a video of herself on Twitter sticking her middle finger up as Trump’s motorcade. North Korea has said that they will not completely give up their nuclear weapon program until they no longer feel any threat from the US or any other country.

The extremely tight security will be appreciated by the North Korean authorities who are very vigilant about the security of their leader, Kim. South Korean President Moon Jae-in has said the Trump-Kim talks would be a critical opportunity to attempt to achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula. President Trump has said that Kim knows that “without nuclear weapons, his country could fast become one of the great economic powers anywhere in the world.”</s>Kim’s decision to take the train all the way across China was probably prompted at least in part by security considerations— his train is built like a tank and almost as slow. But it also marks a major attempt at showmanship designed to bring back memories of North Korean “eternal president” Kim Il Sung’s many travels by railroad.

Kim Jong Un’s journey aboard his forest green train from Pyongyang to the Vietnamese border town of Dong Dang took more than two and a half days. That’s longer than it took Trump to fly halfway around the world, even with Air Force One stopping for fuel along the way.

But the overland passage was a marked upgrade in optics from Kim’s first summit with Trump, in Singapore last June.

For that trip, Kim traveled aboard an Air China Boeing 747, meaning the first images from that history-making arrival showed him disembarking from an American-made plane emblazoned with a Chinese flag.

This time around, when Kim disembarked early Tuesday from his distinctive yellow-trimmed train, he was greeted with a bouquet of flowers on a patterned red carpet lined with a Vietnamese honor guard and the five-pointed communist-starred flags of North Korea and Vietnam. He then switched to a black limousine for the final drive to Hanoi.

That’s a much more on-message scene for the North Koreans, who want their home audience to see Kim as the man in charge.

But it’s also familiar on another level.

North Koreans grow up seeing images of Kim’s grandfather traveling by train, which he took to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, among other places, including Vietnam in 1964.

A mockup of a car from the train is on permanent display at the mausoleum where Kim Il Sung and his son late leader Kim Jong Il lie in state, along with maps that light up to show the routes he took on his travels.

Inside the car is a desk used by the leaders, along with chairs and a sofa. Guides explain that the carriage was used as a mobile office — proof, they insist, the leaders worked tirelessly for the people.

Kim Jong Il, who was Kim Jong Un’s father, was known to have hated flying and travelled by train on several trips to China. He is said to have fitted his train out to accommodate lavish parties and karaoke sessions.

During his father’s rule, trips abroad were often not reported for days after they were over, if at all.

But that appears to be changing, also suggesting the importance in the minds of the North’s propagandists of the getting their own visuals out quickly to the nation.

It took North Korean state media less than half a day from the time his train was spotted crossing the border into China to report that Kim was onboard. Images released by the official Korean Central News Agency showed him inspecting an honor guard in Pyongyang and waving from the train.

Kim’s exact overseas travel plans are routinely kept secret for security reasons. His train appears to have bypassed the busy Chinese capital, Beijing, and few images have trickled out since The Associated Press and others witnessed his train crossing into the Chinese border city of Dandong on Saturday evening. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported seeing his train in the central Chinese town of Changsha on Monday.

A Japanese TV network caught another candid moment — early morning shots of Kim, a well-known chain smoker, puffing away while on a stop in Nanning.</s>North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrives at the Dong Dang railway station in Dong Dang, Lang Son province, on February 26, 2019, to attend the second US-North Korea summit.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is on his way to Hanoi, Vietnam, for his second summit with US President Donald Trump this week. While every movement of the isolated communist leader is a subject of attention, questions have been raised as to why Kim has chosen a 60-hour train ride, over a plane journey that would take just three or four hours.

Kim started off on his long train trip Saturday afternoon, departing from Pyonngyang's train station at around 4:30 p.m. If Kim were to take the train all the way to Dong Dang station in Vietnam -- from where he is expected to transfer to a motor vehicle to complete the trip to Hanoi -- the train ride is expected to take approximately 60 hours. From Dong Dang Station in Lang Son Province, it will take about three hours to reach Hanoi by car. The straight-line distance between Pyonyang and Hanoi is 4,500 kilometers.

Experts believe one of the reasons Kim is taking a train to Hanoi is because it is how his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, North Korea's founder, travelled for his visits to Vietnam in 1958 and 1964, using airplane and train to reach Hanoi via China. Kim is often seen to replicate his grandfather to reinforce the idea that he is a successor of the Kim regime.

As the train passes through China, the trip is also viewed as a way for North Korea to boast its close ties to its ally.

The armored train is also thought to be a safer choice for Kim, as North Korea's state jet Chammae-1 is old and there is a lack of experienced pilots. The Chammae-1 is a Soviet-era IL-62M, that is capable of travelling up to 10,000 kilometers. When Kim travelled to Singapore by plane for his first summit with Trump in June 2018, he did so on a plane borrowed from the Chinese government.

Tak Hyun-min, the former protocol presidential aide for South Korean President Moon Jae-in who recently returned as an adviser, said having the leader take a train was an "excellent choice" of the North Korea's protocol team.

"First, they made Kim's transportation the news. They have created enough stories with their soldiers lined up in train stations, and with the historical meaning of travelling by train from North Korea to Vietnam," Tak wrote in his Facebook post on Monday.

"And having the world, and us, witness the simple fact that the railroad in Pyongyang is connected all the way to Vietnam, it excites us with thoughts that a train that departs from Busan would be able to pass through Pyongyang to reach Southeastern Asian countries, including Vietnam."

The train Kim is on is often referred as a "special hotel" that can move. The train, which has a label DF-0002 differs from the model that his father Kim Jong-il took, which had the label DF-0001. It is reportedly said that the special train is built with high-level of security facilities and a very hotel-like interior.

Kim is expected to arrive in Vietnam on Tuesday. Reports speculate that Kim may also stop at other areas in Vietnam on his way to Hanoi, to inspect some of the indutrial sites there.

The summit between US President Donald Trump and Kim are scheduled on Wednesday and Thursday, but details have not been released.</s>HANOI (Reuters) - When North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrives in Hanoi on Tuesday for his summit with U.S. President Donald Trump later this week, he will be the first leader of the isolated country to visit Vietnam since his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, visited in 1964.

Vietnam's model of reform is being widely touted as the economic path for impoverished North Korea to follow as the United States leads efforts to curb Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program and bring it back to the international fold.

But Vietnam's transformation has required political change and levels of individual freedoms that would require major reforms for the Kim family, which is afforded godlike status by state propaganda.

In imagery that could have powerful propaganda value at home, Kim Jong Un will mimic aspects of his grandfather's trip to Vietnam by traveling to some of the same locations visited by the elder Kim, two sources with direct knowledge of security and logistics planning told Reuters.

"This is legacy politics," said Christopher Green, a North Korea expert with the International Crisis Group.

"North Korea will want to play up Kim’s succession to the role of his grandfather, who successfully built up North Korea's international legitimacy after the establishment of the state."

Even Kim Jong Un's multi-day train journey through North Korea and thousands of kilometers across China to reach Vietnam is similar to the grand train voyages his grandfather once took.

His armored train, complete with carriages decked out with pink leather chairs and big-screen televisions, is expected to reach Vietnam on Tuesday morning.

One of the destinations in Kim's itinerary is the coastal northern Vietnamese province of Quang Ninh, the sources said. The province is home to Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO world heritage site dotted with steep-sided islands which attracted over 12 million tourists last year.

Kim Il Sung visited Ha Long Bay in 1964 during his second visit to Vietnam.

Kim's train is expected to stop at the Vietnamese border station of Dong Dang, where he will disembark and travel the 170 km (105 miles) to Hanoi by car, sources told Reuters last Wednesday.

Vietnamese media on Monday showed red carpet being rolled out ready for Kim's arrival at the Dong Dang train station.

Over the weekend, Vietnam announced that it will ban traffic on the road from the station to Hanoi on Tuesday.

Kim Jong Un may be looking to learn from Vietnam's experience of manufacturing products for international companies, meaning a visit to a factory could also be on the cards.

A source with direct knowledge of the plan said a high level North Korean delegation is scheduled to visit a plant operated by start-up Vietnamese automaker Vinfast in Haiphong province on Wednesday afternoon.

The plan is subject to change, the source said.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics operates a massive smartphone factory in Bac Ninh, another province popular with Vietnamese and international manufacturers.

A source with direct knowledge of the matter said Samsung Electronics had not been informed of any visit by Kim, or instructed by Vietnamese authorities to host him.

In Hanoi, North Korean and U.S. flags could be seen on along a main thoroughfare and bridge crossing the Red River into the city.

Trump and Kim are expected to meet for their second summit in Hanoi's Government Guesthouse, an elegant, colonial-era building in the city center, or at the nearby Metropole Hotel, sources have told Reuters.

Dozens of North Korean security men with identical haircuts and suits marched off an aircraft at Hanoi airport on Sunday, as Vietnamese soldiers searched through shrubbery outside the Metropole.

Trump will arrive in Vietnam on Tuesday evening, Vietnam's foreign ministry said on Monday. Trump will meet Vietnam's president, who is also general secretary of the ruling Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong, on Wednesday morning, the ministry said.

Trump on Monday appeared to play down any hope of a major breakthrough at the two day summit, saying he would be happy as long as North Korea maintained its pause on weapons testing.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visits his country's embassy in Hanoi on Tuesday in preparation for the summit.