DONG DANG, Vietnam: The train station on the Vietnam-China border where Kim Jong Un is expected to arrive by rail was closed to the public and surrounded by armed guards on Monday, days ahead of the North Korean leader’s summit with Donald Trump.
Kim boarded his trademark olive-green train in Pyongyang on Saturday and its armored carriages were later spotted crossing a bridge into China.
The train apparently bypassed Beijing and is now thought to be chugging south en route to Vietnam, which is hastily preparing for the second meeting between Kim and US President Trump after their historic first summit in Singapore last June.
Sources in Vietnam said Kim could arrive at the Dong Dang border station in the early hours of Tuesday following his epic 4,000-kilometer, two-and-a-half-day journey.
His motorcade is likely to drive from Dong Dang to Hanoi and in an unprecedented move, the entire 170-kilometer stretch of road will be completely closed from 6:00 am to 2:00 p.m. Tuesday.
An AFP reporter at the scene saw armed guards stationed at Dong Dang station on Monday morning, while workers tended to the rail tracks.
“(The station) is closed, no public access. We don’t know when it’s closed until but around tomorrow,” a guard said, requesting anonymity.
Kim’s route through China remained a tightly guarded secret.
Ifeng, the online Chinese-language news website of Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television, posted a video on its Twitter-like Weibo account showing what it described as Kim’s special train passing through Wuhan in the central province of Hubei at 7:15A.M. local time on Monday.
Vietnam said on Saturday that Kim would make an official visit to the country “in the coming days,” but did not say whether that would be before or after the Trump-Kim summit on February 27-28.
Two sources said on Monday that Kim would stay at a modern hotel in downtown Hanoi, about one kilometer (mile) from the colonial-era Government Guesthouse where the summit could take place.
The Melia hotel boasts of its “elegant interiors with gorgeous views of the city” and is connected to Hanoi’s only Rolls-Royce dealership catering to the city’s growing class of super-rich.
A staff member said this week the hotel was fully booked until early March, but would not be drawn on any VIP guests.
The White House press center will be set up at the same hotel, and North Korean security personnel were seen entering the building on Sunday.
During his trip Kim is also expected to visit industrial zones in Vietnam’s provinces of Quang Ninh and Bac Ninh, which is home to a Samsung factory.
Trump and Kim’s first meeting ended with a vaguely worded statement to work toward the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean peninsula, and both sides are under pressure to walk away from this week’s summit with concrete deliverables.
Vietnam train station on lockdown ahead of Kim Jong Un’s expected arrival
Vietnam train station on lockdown ahead of Kim Jong Un’s expected arrival
Trump warns against infiltration by a ‘bad Santa,’ defends coal in jovial Christmas calls with kids
- Take potshots at his critics, "including the Radical Left Scum that is doing everything possible to destroy our Country, but are failing badly”
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida: President Donald Trump marked Christmas Eve by quizzing children calling in about what presents they were excited about receiving, while promising to not let a “bad Santa” infiltrate the country and even suggesting that a stocking full of coal may not be so bad.
Vacationing at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, the president and first lady Melania Trump participated in the tradition of talking to youngsters dialing into the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which playfully tracks Santa’s progress around the globe.
“We want to make sure that Santa is being good. Santa’s a very good person,” Trump said while speaking to kids ages 4 and 10 in Oklahoma. “We want to make sure that he’s not infiltrated, that we’re not infiltrating into our country a bad Santa.”
He didn’t elaborate.
Trump has often marked Christmases past with criticisms of his political enemies, including in 2024, when he posted, “Merry Christmas to the Radical Left Lunatics.” During his first term, Trump wrote online early on Dec. 24, 2017, targeting a top FBI official he believed was biased against him, as well as the news media.
Shortly after wrapping up Wednesday’s Christmas Eve calls, in fact, he returned to that theme, posting: “Merry Christmas to all, including the Radical Left Scum that is doing everything possible to destroy our Country, but are failing badly.”
But Trump was in a jovial mood while talking with the kids. He even said at one point that he “could do this all day long” but likely would have to get back to more pressing matters like efforts to quell the fighting in Russia’s war with Ukraine.
When an 8-year-old from North Carolina, asked if Santa would be mad if no one leaves cookies out for him, Trump said he didn’t think so, “But I think he’ll be very disappointed.”
“You know, Santa’s — he tends to be a little bit on the cherubic side. You know what cherubic means? A little on the heavy side,” Trump joked. “I think Santa would like some cookies.”
The president and first lady Melania Trump sat side-by-side and took about a dozen calls between them. At one point, while his wife was on the phone and Trump was waiting to be connected to another call, he noted how little attention she was paying to him: “She’s able to focus totally, without listening.”
Asked by an 8-year-old girl in Kansas what she’d like Santa to bring, the answer came back, “Uh, not coal.”
“You mean clean, beautiful coal?” Trump replied, evoking a favored campaign slogan he’s long used when promising to revive domestic coal production.
“I had to do that, I’m sorry,” the president added, laughing and even causing the first lady, who was on a separate call, to turn toward him and grin.
“Coal is clean and beautiful. Please remember that, at all costs,” Trump said. “But you don’t want clean, beautiful coal, right?”
“No,” the caller responded, saying she’d prefer a Barbie doll, clothes and candy.
