HANOI, Vietnam _ President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un met Wednesday for the second time in eight months, kicking off a two-day summit that was being closely watched for evidence that North Korea was serious about ending its nuclear program.
But even as the two leaders dined at a colonial-era hotel in Vietnam's capital, Trump's high-wattage diplomacy was being overshadowed by the dramatic events unfolding back in Washington, where his former lawyer Michael Cohen was preparing to testify to Congress that Trump authorized him to pay hush money to conceal an affair he had with a porn star.
It was clear that the explosive testimony in which Cohen called Trump a "racist" and a "con man," according to prepared remarks published by news organizations _ had seized the president's attention while he was waiting at the JW Marriott in Hanoi for his meeting with Kim.
About two hours before the meeting, Trump attacked Cohen on Twitter, accusing him of doing "bad things unrelated to Trump" and "lying in order to reduce his prison time."
Aides to the president, already nervous about what Trump might agree to during the meetings with Kim, have acknowledged that the timing of Cohen's testimony and Trump's reaction to it are additional wild cards in the North Korea negotiations.
Shortly after 6 p.m., Trump's motorcade arrived at the elegant Metropole hotel in central Hanoi. Inside the hotel, Trump and Kim greeted each other warmly, shaking hands, smiling and posing for photos in front of a display of U.S. and North Korean flags.
In brief remarks to reporters, Kim praised Trump's "courageous decision" to begin a dialogue, and Trump promised to help develop North Korea's economy if he denuclearizes.
"Your country has tremendous economic potential, unbelievable, unlimited," Trump said. "I look forward to watching it happen and to helping it to happen, and we will help it to happen."
Trump said he hoped to make progress following their historic first summit last June in Singapore, where Kim pledged to denuclearize, but without details or a timetable.
"I thought the first summit was a great success, and I think this will hopefully be equal or greater than the first," Trump said. "We made a lot of progress. And I think the biggest progress was our relationship. It's really a good one."
Responding to a shouted question, Trump signaled that he did not intend to back away from his demand for full and verifiable denuclearization. He also signaled that a declaration to end the Korean War was on the table.
But when a reporter shouted a question to Trump about Cohen's testimony, which the president did not answer, his lips pursed.
Afterward, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders informed the small pool of reporters who had been allowed into the room that they would no longer be allowed access to the next event, a "social dinner," because their questions during the photo op had apparently upset the participants. Kim was not asked a question.
While two of the six reporters in the pool were eventually allowed into the dinner, the reporters who asked the questions were barred. Sanders, in a statement, attributed the decision to "the sensitive nature of the event."
While Trump bristled over reporters' questions, he relished the attention of the photographers snapping away before him. He singled out Doug Mills of the New York Times, asking him to send the White House his photos so he could share them with Kim.
Trump and Kim were joined for the dinner by Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo; Trump's acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney; Kim Yong Chol, a top aide to Kim; North Korea's foreign minister, Ri Yong Ho; and their interpreters.
Their meetings were due to continue Thursday in Hanoi before Trump was scheduled to return to Washington.
Earlier Wednesday, Trump held meetings with Vietnamese government officials, announced $21 billion in Vietnamese investment in U.S. aerospace, and then returned to his hotel for four hours of unscheduled time before the meetings with Kim.
Before tweeting about Cohen, he took another shot at Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who has acknowledged misrepresenting his military service during the Vietnam War. Blumenthal claimed he fought in Vietnam, when he actually served in the Marine Corps reserves and was not deployed overseas.
Trump resurfaced a favorite nickname for Blumenthal, tweeting that he had "now spent more time in Vietnam than Da Nang Dick Blumenthal, the third rate Senator from Connecticut" and that he had discussed the senator's claims with Vietnamese leaders.
Trump never served in uniform and avoided Vietnam by receiving five draft deferments, including one for bone spurs in his heels.
Cohen, in his public testimony, planned to say that Trump once acknowledged to him that the bone spurs were just an excuse, telling him he avoided Vietnam because he wasn't "stupid."
With Cohen set to testify in person just two hours after Trump's social dinner with Kim wraps up, the president's made-for-TV summit stagecraft was at risk of being upstaged by a potentially damaging domestic spectacle out of his control.
Television networks said they planned to carry Cohen's testimony before Congress live.
