President Donald Trump announced on Friday that his upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will take place in Hanoi, ending weeks of speculation over the venue for the two leaders’ second meeting.
Trump revealed the decision in an evening tweet.
“My representatives have just left North Korea after a very productive meeting and an agreed upon time and date for the second Summit with Kim Jong Un,” Trump tweeted. “It will take place in Hanoi, Vietnam, on February 27 & 28. I look forward to seeing Chairman Kim & advancing the cause of peace!”
Trump announced in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night that he would meet with Kim on Feb. 27-28 in Vietnam. But the exact location had remained uncertain.
In a second tweet on Friday night, Trump predicted that North Korea “will become a different kind of Rocket — an Economic one!”
Before their first summit in Singapore last year, Trump had long mocked Kim as “Little Rocket Man.”
“North Korea, under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, will become a great Economic Powerhouse,” Trump said in the tweet. “He may surprise some but he won’t surprise me, because I have gotten to know him & fully understand how capable he is.”
Trump administration officials are hopeful for progress toward North Korea’s denuclearization at the meeting, although some experts remain skeptical.
Stephen Biegun, the State Department’s special representative on North Korea, was in Pyongyang this week to finalize planning with his counterpart, Kim Hyok Chol.