by Daveda Gruber:
When we think of Vietnam, the obvious meets the memory to those of us old enough. We remember a war that left many dead. In fact, 58,220 U.S. military fatal casualties are recorded of the Vietnam War.
Younger people may see the Vietnamese people as nail techs who we see in the salons where we get manicures and pedicures.
Well, things have certainly changed.
Chairman Kim Jong Un arrived in Vietnam by armored train a few hours before President Trump arrived by plane.
Kim arrived at Vietnam’s Dong Dang railway station on the China-Vietnam border on Tuesday where he later travelled by armed car to Hanoi.
Trump disembarked from Air Force One at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi in the early morning hours of Feb 26, 2019. Both leaders were welcomed by spectators and Vietnam officials.
The two leaders are expected to discuss denuclearization during the summit.
“Security will be at the maximum level,” Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Hoai Trung told reporters.
Vietnam has become a booming economy and the country’s leaders are eager to show off the huge economic and development improvements since the destruction of the Vietnam War.
If Chairman Kim wants North Korea to become a thriving nation, Kim will have to weigh the importance of the nuclear power his country now has.
This summit will be an important one but we must keep in mind that total denuclearization is not easily attained. Right now Kim is hanging on to what he believes is keeping him in power and protecting his stature in the rogue nation.
Hopefully summits with both leaders will build a bonding trust. Kim cannot avoid seeing how Hanoi has flourished and has manufacturing bringing in economic strength.
Vietnam may be the fastest-growing of the world’s economies, with a potential annual GDP growth rate of about 5.1%, which would make its economy the 20th-largest in the world by 2050.
Trump has repeatedly hailed his meeting with Kim in Singapore last June as a success. Trump did accomplish the stopping of weapons being launched by North Korea although it has been said that there were few concrete outcomes from the summit.
