Wednesday 27 February - DAILY NEWS SUMMARY
Pretoria News (www.pretorianews.co.za)
Page 2 – Ramaphosa meets people with disabilities Page 5 – Nod for Cyril’s vision
Page 9 – All eyes will be on Trump-Kim summit (North Korea) Page 13 – R13bn to be spent on road infrastructure
The Star (www.iol.co.za)
Page 5 – Mango clients hit by luggage theft Page 16 – May 8 officially a public holiday
Page 17 – TymeBank, SA’s first fully digital-driven bank, goes live Page 25 – Kim’s retro rail journey part of PR (North Korea)
Business Day (www.businesslive.co.za) Page 1 – Rain and Huawei roll out 5G in SA
Page 2 – Up or down: analysts split in rates forecast Page 5 – Kim relies on Chinese steam (North Korea)
Page 15 – Hyundai set for showdown with Elliot over $6.3bn dividend call (Seoul:현대)
Citizen (www.citizen.co.za)
Page 2 – Chinese investment in Limpopo under threat Page 4 – Pupils boast after killing
Page 10 – Trump, Kim begin talks
News24 (www.news24.co.za)
WATCH: Kim Jong Un arrives in Vietnam for summit with Trump
WATCH: On his way to Vietnam, Kim Jong Un took an early smoke break
WATCH: Kim Jong Un arrives in Vietnam for summit with Trump
2019-02-26 10:07
Play Video 54s
North Korean leader arrives in Vietnam for Trump summit
Kim Jong Un is expected to meet US president Donald Trump in Vietnamese capital Hanoi on Wednesday.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) waves after arriving at the Dong Dang railway station in Dong Dang, Lang Son province, on February 26, 2019, to attend the second US-North Korea summit. (Nhac NGUYEN / AFP)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, grinning broadly and waving at a crowd gathered on a cold, rainy morning, stepped off his armored train on Tuesday after a long ride that started in Pyongyang and wound through China to this Vietnamese border town ahead of his second nuclear summit with President Donald Trump.
Kim, dressed in his trademark dark Mao suit, shook hands with officials as Vietnamese troops in crisp, white uniforms and black boots stood at attention on a red carpet beneath large North Korean and Vietnamese flags at the Dong Dang railway station on the China- Vietnam border.
A crowd gathered along the road near the station to wave North Korean flags and bouquets of flowers as the North Korean leader stepped into a black limousine that was then
surrounded by burly, crewcut bodyguards who ran alongside their leader as he left the
station. Press reports speculate that Kim will be driven to Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, ahead of his Wednesday meeting with Trump, but officials shared no details about the specifics of a summit that the world will be watching closely.
Trump was flying to Hanoi from Washington. Kim's arrival comes as Vietnamese officials scramble to finish preparations for a rushed summit that's meant to deal with one of Asia's biggest security challenges: North Korea's pursuit of a nuclear programme that stands on the verge of viably threatening any target on the planet.
Play Video 1m 15s
Kim Jong Un convoy arrives in Hanoi for Trump summit
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's convoy arrives in Hanoi ahead of summit with US President Donald Trump.
Although many experts are skeptical Kim will give up the nukes he likely sees as his best guarantee of continued rule, there was a palpable, carnival-like excitement among many in Hanoi as the final preparations were made for the meeting.
Officials in Hanoi said they only had about 10 days to prepare for the summit — much less than the nearly two months Singapore had before the first Trump-Kim meeting last year—
but still vowed to provide airtight security for the two leaders.
"Security will be at the maximum level," Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Hoai Trung told reporters.
The ultra-tight security will be appreciated by North Korean authorities, who are extremely vigilant about the safety of Kim, the third member of his family to rule the North with absolute power. Kim's decision to take a train, not a plane, may have been influenced by the better ability to control security.
Vietnam is eager to show off its huge economic and development improvements since the destruction of the Vietnam War, but the country also tolerates no dissent and is able to provide the kind of firm hand not allowed by more democratic potential hosts.
Vietnam has announced an unprecedented traffic ban along a possible arrival route for Kim.
The Communist Party's Nhan Dan newspaper quoted the Roads Department as saying the ban will affect the 169km stretch of Highway One from Dong Dang, on the border with China, to Hanoi.
There are high expectations for the Hanoi summit after a vague declaration at the first meeting in June in Singapore that disappointed many.
In a meeting with senior aides in Seoul, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said that the Trump-Kim talks would be a critical opportunity to achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula.
Moon, who met Kim three times last year and has lobbied hard to revive nuclear diplomacy between the US and North Korea, is eager for a breakthrough that would allow him to push ambitious plans for inter-Korean engagement, including lucrative joint economic projects that are held back by US-led sanctions against the North.
"If President Trump succeeds in dissolving the world's last remaining Cold War rivalry, it will become yet another great feat that will be indelibly recorded in world history," Moon said.
Trump, via Twitter, has worked to temper those expectations, predicting before leaving for Hanoi a "continuation of the progress" made in Singapore but adding a tantalising nod to
"Denuclearization?" He also said that Kim knows that "without nuclear weapons, his country could fast become one of the great economic powers anywhere in the World".
North Korea has spent decades, at great political and economic sacrifice, building its nuclear programme, and there is widespread skepticism among experts that it will give away that programme cheaply.
WATCH: On his way to Vietnam, Kim Jong Un took an early smoke break
2019-02-26 23:01
Play Video 1m 20s
Kim Jong Un takes smoking break on way to Summit
Video shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un taking a pre-dawn smoke break at a train station in China, hours before his arrival in Vietnam for his summit with US President Donald Trump.
It's unclear whether North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is going to give up his nukes anytime soon, and the same could probably be said for his cigarettes.
Footage by Japan's TBS TV showed Kim, a habitual smoker, taking a pre-dawn smoke break on Tuesday at a train station in China hours before his arrival in Vietnam for his high- stakes summit with President Donald Trump over resolving the international standoff over the North's nuclear weapons and missiles.
The video showed Kim puffing a cigarette and talking with North Korean officials at China's Nanning rail station. A woman who appeared to be his sister Kim Yo Jong, one of the most powerful individuals in North Korea, is seen holding a crystal ashtray.
Also seen on the platform is Hyon Song Wol, a North Korean ruling party elite and the leader of the famous Moranbong girl band hand-picked by Kim Jong Un.
Play Video 1m 1s
Good morning Vietnam! Grinning Kim arrives ahead of Trump meet
A jovial North Korean leader Kim Jong Un grins and waves as he walks the red carpet from a Vietnamese rail station, and heads to Hanoi for the much anticipated second summit with US President Donald Trump.
Hyon's inclusion in Kim's delegation has raised speculation that cultural events could be part of the agreements reached between Washington and Pyongyang this week as they look for easier steps to improve relations.
Kim arrived in Vietnam on Tuesday after an almost 70-hour train ride that cut through southern China.
While it remains unclear why Kim chose to travel thousands of miles through China instead of flying into Hanoi, some experts say he could have intended to showcase North Korea's ties with its major ally China, a crucial leverage in his negotiations with Trump.
Kim, who has modelled his leadership style after his charismatic grandfather Kim Il Sung, also could have tried to inspire nostalgia among North Koreans about their state founder, who frequently travelled on trains.
Despite pushing an anti-smoking campaign in North Korea, Kim is frequently seen with a cigarette in his hands.
In July 2017, North Korea's state broadcaster showed him casually smoking in front of one of his liquid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles as it underwent preparations for a test launch.
State media also showed Kim and North Korean officials laughing and lighting up cigarettes following the success of the North's last ICBM test in November 2017.
