President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam at the end of February as part of his administration's efforts to roll back the country's nuclear program.
Addressing Congress during his second State of the Union, Trump said his relationship with North Korea's leader is "good" and progress has made in his administration's efforts to achieve peace on the Korean peninsula.
Trump, however, said much work remains to be done and gave an ominous warning about the risks of heightened tensions with North Korea, going so far as to claim that Washington and Pyongyang would be at war if he had not been elected president.
"If I had not been elected President of the United States, we would right now, in my opinion, be in a major war with North Korea," Trump said.
Trump's second face-to-face meeting with Kim will take place on Feb. 27-28, though it is not clear where in Vietnam the summit will be held. Hanoi, the nation's capital, and Da Nang, a coastal resort town, have both been floated as possibilities.
The lead U.S. negotiator with North Korea, Stephen Biegun, is set to meet with his North Korean counterpart on Wednesday in Pyongyang. He said that he hoped the meeting with Kim Hyok Chol would map out "a set of concrete deliverables," according to Reuters.
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