“Whatever you’re looking for, you will find here,” the film adaptation of The Quiet American says of Vietnam. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have arrived in the buzzy Vietnamese capital searching for detente over the north’s nuclear program, as the reclusive state stands on the brink of being able to strike at targets across the world. Both leaders will be looking for a win from this second summit, and will start jockeying Wednesday night within the plush confines of the hotel Metropole in Hanoi, where The Quiet American was hammered out in the 1950s by English author Graham Greene. At the $300 a night Metropole (now part of the Sofitel Legend group), a colonial luster lingers—all polished woodwork, antique ceiling fans and iron filigree, with a suite named for Greene and a vintage Citroën parked out front. An escargot-serving sidewalk cafe wraps around the hotel’s exterior, adding to the sense of Parisian chic in the upmarket French quarter. The Swiss watchmaker Patek Philipe has a boutique nearby and a number of boulangeries can be found in the area, along with the chocolate-box facade of the Hanoi Opera House. Built in 1901, the Metropole was a favorite haunt of celebrities and diplomats. Charles Chaplin and Paulette Goddard honeymooned there in 1936, and it reportedly played host to Bill Clinton and Jane Fonda. In 1972, Joan Baez famously took cover in an underground bunker there during the Christmas Bombings. Trump himself has previously visited the hotel, reportedly staying there in 2017. During the war, the Communist north used the stately accommodation to house foreign guests and renamed it the “Reunification” hotel. A 1990 restoration revamped the premises, which had languished as the country recovered from Vietnam War, which killed an estimated 3.8 million Vietnamese and 58,000 American soldiers. The latest installment in the Metropole’s war storied history could see it become an emblem of peace should Trump and Kim make any breakthroughs. At the very least, the Metropole is set to become the iconic backdrop of their second nuclear summit as the pair plan on a 20-minute conversation Wednesday night. The two are also scheduled to have dinner with aides, before Trump departs around 8:30 p.m. Get The Brief. Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. Please enter a valid email address. * The request timed out and you did not successfully sign up. Please attempt to sign up again. Sign Up Now An unexpected error has occurred with your sign up. Please try again later. Check the box if you do not wish to receive promotional offers via email from TIME. You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Thank you! For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder. Write to Laignee Barron at Laignee.Barron@time.com.<doc-sep>NEW A vastly improved search engine helps you find the latest on companies, business leaders, and news more easily.<doc-sep>HANOI (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un begin their second summit in less than a year in the Vietnamese capital on Wednesday, with the U.S. side seeking tangible steps by North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program. The White House said Trump would meet Kim at Hanoi’s French-colonial-era Metropole Hotel at 6:30 p.m. (1130 GMT) and have a 20-minute one-on-one conversation before a dinner scheduled to last just over an hour and a half. Trump flew into Hanoi on Air Force One late on Tuesday. “Just arrived in Vietnam,” he wrote in a Twitter post. “Thank you to all of the people for the great reception in Hanoi. Tremendous crowds, and so much love!” Kim arrived by train early in the day after a three-day, 3,000-km (1,850-mile) trip from his capital, Pyongyang, through China. He completed the last stretch from a border station to Hanoi by car. The two leaders, who seemed to strike up a surprisingly warm relationship at their first summit in Singapore last June, will be accompanied at dinner by two aides and interpreters, the White House said, before they meet again on Thursday. Their talks come eight months after the historic summit in Singapore, the first between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader. While much of that first meeting was about breaking the ice after decades of bitter animosity between their two countries, this time there will be pressure to move beyond a vaguely worded commitment by Kim to work toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. Trump’s critics at home have warned him against cutting a deal that would do little to curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, urging specific, verifiable North Korean action to abandon the nuclear weapons that threaten the United States. In return, Kim would expect significant U.S. concessions such as relief from punishing sanctions and a declaration that the 1950-53 Korean War is at last formally over. Trump, landing in darkness, waved as he disembarked Air Force One and was met by senior Vietnamese and U.S. officials. His motorcade passed crowds waving the flags of Vietnam, the United States and North Korea on its way to the JW Marriott Hotel, his accommodation for the two-day summit. Earlier, Vietnamese officials greeted Kim at the station in Dong Dang town after he crossed the border from China by train. He got a red-carpet welcome with honor guard, military band and fluttering North Korean and Vietnamese flags. Kim was accompanied by his sister, Kim Yo Jong, an important aide. About a dozen bodyguards briefly ran alongside his limousine as he began the two-hour journey to Hanoi. Roads were closed with security forces in armored personnel carriers guarding the route to the Melia hotel, where Kim is staying. North Korean officials engaged in working-level talks for the summit briefed Kim after he arrived, the North’s state news agency, KCNA, said on Wednesday. At the Melia hotel, Kim “heard concrete details on the pattern of engagement between working-level delegations,” KCNA said, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Visiting the North Korean embassy in Vietnam, Kim urged staff there to strengthen two-way ties in line with the needs of the times, KCNA added. Slideshow ( 21 images ) Kim “will reunite with U.S. President Donald J. Trump from February 27 to 28 and conduct the historic second DPRK-U.S. summit,” before embarking on a goodwill visit to Vietnam on March 1 and 2, the agency said. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also arrived on Tuesday and met Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh for talks. ‘TREMENDOUS’ Trump said before leaving Washington it would be “a very tremendous summit” and stressed the benefits to North Korea if it gave up its nuclear weapons. Slideshow ( 21 images ) “With complete denuclearization, North Korea will rapidly become an economic powerhouse,” he said. “Without it, just more of the same. Chairman Kim will make a wise decision!” In a speech on Sunday, however, Trump appeared to play down the possibility of a major breakthrough, saying he would be happy as long as North Korea maintained its pause on weapons testing. “I’m not in a rush,” he said. “I just don’t want testing. As long as there’s no testing, we’re happy.” North Korea has not held a nuclear or missile test since 2017, but analysts say the two leaders have to move beyond summit symbolism. “The most basic, yet urgent, task is to come to a shared understanding of what denuclearization would entail,” said Gi-Wook Shin, director of Stanford’s Asia-Pacific Research Center. “The ambiguity and obscurity of the term ‘denuclearization’ only exacerbates the skepticism about both the U.S. and North Korean commitments to denuclearization.” While the United States is demanding North Korea give up all of its nuclear and missile programs, the North wants to see the removal of a U.S. nuclear umbrella for South Korea. Trump’s departure from Washington comes at a time of increased pressure at home, and he is keen to show progress on a foreign policy issue that has confounded multiple predecessors. Some analysts fear that may lead him to pull his punches. “The main concern is whether the president, besieged by domestic distractions, will give away too much, and take a bad deal that leaves the United States less secure,” said Victor Cha, a former White House official who took part in North Korea talks under previous Republican administrations. While Trump is in Hanoi, his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen is testifying before U.S. congressional committees, with the president’s business practices the main focus. Anticipation has also been rising about the impending release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, though a senior U.S. Justice Department official said on Friday it would not come this week. A South Korean presidential spokesman told reporters in Seoul the two sides might be able to agree to a formal end of the Korean War, a move long sought by North Korea, as the war concluded with an armistice, rather than a peace treaty.<doc-sep>
(CNN) — The capital of Vietnam Is abuzz as the second summit between US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un kicks off in the city, with the pair meeting February 27-28. Once again, as was the case with last year's summit in Singapore, neither leader is staying at the venue of the actual meetings -- in this case, the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi. But they are getting to experience some of its cuisine. Trump and Kim enjoyed a dinner at the Metropole hotel on the 27th, which included a mix of Western and Korean dishes prepared by Sofitel Legend Metropole's own chefs, alongside a few outside Korean chefs. According to sources close to the summit planning, the menu featured: Shrimp cocktail with romaine leaves, avocado and herbs; tender grilled sirloin with pear kimchi; and chocolate lava cake for dessert. The two will also enjoy a lunch at the hotel on the 28th. Past guests include Charlie Chaplin, Graham Greene Located on the second floor of the historical Metropole wing, the Graham Greene Suite is decorated in a classical French style. Offering 364 rooms, the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi is packed with French colonial charm and might just be the most luxurious hotel in the city. At the very least, it's certainly the luxury hotel with the most fascinating back story. Formerly the residence of the French Governor of Tonkin (the historic name of northern Vietnam), it's centrally located right around the corner from the Hanoi Opera house and the neo-Gothic St. Joseph's Cathedral. The Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi opened in 1901. Back then, visiting dignitaries and celebrities hung out at the hotel's streetside restaurant, often staying for the entire afternoon to take in the scenes on Hanoi's busy streets. A plaque in the hotel lists all the illustrious figures that have visited. Charlie Chaplin has honeymooned there and it was in this opulent hotel that Graham Greene reportedly worked on his classic novel "The Quiet American." In more recent times, other patrons of the five-star hotel have included Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and former US President Bill Clinton. The hotel's glitzy aura faded during the Vietnam War -- or American War, as it's referred to there -- when the property fell into disuse and subsequent disrepair. In the decades following the war, Pullman Hotels and Resorts revived the property, bringing it back to its former glory. Later, international hospitality brand AccorHotels took over management of the prestigious hotel, where travelers are once again spoiled with gorgeous antique furniture, spacious rooms and appealing dining spaces. When it comes to rooms, we'd recommend the historical Metropole Wing, which showcases preserved furniture, silk tapestries, green shutters and original wrought-iron details. In terms of dining/drinking options, guests will find a few high-end restaurants, including the French Le Beaulieu and the romantic Bamboo Bar in the lush courtyard, by the pool. An underground bunker But perhaps coolest of all, the hotel has an underground bunker, which guests can experience as part of the hotel's Path of History tour. According to the hotel's historians, Metropole's bomb shelter protected guests from air raids during the war, including celebrity visitors such as Joan Baez and Jane Fonda After the war, it was closed and sealed, forgotten for decades. Then, by chance, the hotel engineering department rediscovered it during the renovation of the Bamboo Bar in 2011. The bunker was reopened in May 2012 "to honor the extraordinary efforts of employees during shared hardships of wartime" and serves "as a memorial to their courage and perseverance and to remember what should never be forgotten," says the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi website of its "Path of History" tour. Guests of the hotel can join one of the daily tours, conducted by historians, at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. (See our 2012 coverage of the bunker discovery here .)