Our top story this evening.<br />The venue for the second North Korea-U.S. summit has been set.<br />It will be held in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi later this month.<br />The announcement was made by President Donald Trump this morning... who said he looks forward to the meeting and that North Korea could become a great economic powerhouse. <br />Our Unification Ministry correspondent Oh Jung-hee starts us off. <br /> The location is finally set.<br />The second Kim-Trump summit is to be held in Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, for two days from February 27th to 28th.<br />That was revealed through U.S. President Donald Trump's tweet on Saturday.<br /><br />Hanoi has been much preferred by the North Korean side.<br /> First of all, it has the North Korean embassy.<br />And second, late former North Korean leader Kim Il-sung, grandfather of Kim Jong-un, visited the city two times in 1958 and 1964.<br /> It's also known that the Vietnamese government recommended Hanoi for the summit.<br />As it will be the first time in over 50 years that a North Korean leader travels to the country, it's possible that Kim could make a state visit to Vietnam.<br /><br /> The venue announcement comes after the U.S. Special Representative for North Korea made a three-day visit to Pyeongyang this week.<br />On Saturday, Stephen Biegun stopped by at Seoul's foreign ministry... to brief his South Korean counterpart Lee Do-hoon and South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha on the results of his meetings with the North.<br /><br /> "We are in the midst of a conversation with the North and our discussions were productive. (cut) We have some hard work to do with the DPRK between now and then and I am confident that both sides stay committed we can make real progress."<br /><br /> From Wednesday to Friday, Biegun met with his North Korean counterpart Kim Hyok-chol, whom the U.S. State Department confirmed as Pyeongyang's Special Representative for U.S. Affairs.<br />Kim Hyok-chol and Biegun sealed the location of the upcoming summit.<br />But, according to Washington, they also discussed advancing the commitments made at the Singapore summit -- which means, the two sides talked about some specific actions they should take in terms of denuclearizing and rewarding.<br /><br /> Watchers believe Washington is demanding that the North dismantle additional sites and allow access and verification by American experts.<br />And in return, it's likely that Washington is considering offering some type of assistance for the North's economic development.<br />Through Twitter on Saturday, Trump stressed that North Korea will become a 'great economic powerhouse,' again encouraging the regime to denuclearize.<br /><br /> With the second Pyeongyang-Washington summit only three weeks away, the envoys from the two sides -- Stephen Biegun and Kim Hyok-chol -- are to meet again... to fine tune the details of the summit.<br />Oh Jung-hee, Arirang News. <br />
