A North Korean delegation visited a Vietnamese car factory Wednesday ahead of Kim Jong Un's summit with US President Donald Trump, with analysts calling it a potential inspiration for Pyongyang -- an indigenous plant that symbolises growth and prosperity.
A convoy carrying at least two of Kim's top aides, both of them vice-chairmen of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party, visited the Vinfast complex in Vietnam's coastal industrial hub of Haiphong.
The long motorcade rolled past lines of employees waving Vietnamese and North Korean flags. There was no indication Kim himself was part of the delegation.
The trip came after Trump, in a morning tweet, touted an "AWESOME" future for North Korea if it gives up its nuclear weapons, and held up rapidly growing Vietnam as an example.
Vinfast is the Communist country's first homegrown car manufacturer and part of its largest private conglomerate -- owned by the country's richest man, multi-billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong.
The firm unveiled its first two models, a sedan and an SUV, at the Paris Auto Show in November with former footballer David Beckham brought in to promote the cars.
Using technology licensed from German giant BMW and designed by Italian firm Pininfarina -- which counts Ferrari among its customers -- they are projected to go on sale in September.
Production has yet to begin, but Vinfast has poured $1.5 billion into its sprawling new factory northeast of Hanoi.
In contrast, North Korea's main car company, Pyonghwa -- originally set up by the Southern-based Unification Church -- is said to rebadge vehicles made by Chinese firms such as Dongfeng Motors.
Earlier, the North Korean delegation went to Halong Bay, whose towering rocky karsts are the crown jewels of Vietnam's tourist sector.
The North has sought to develop its nascent tourism sector, with Kim overseeing the development of the giant Wonsan-Kalma resort project under construction on its east coast.
- 'Learn a lot' -
Like China, Vietnam's Communist authorities have embraced market economics in recent decades and been rewarded by a glittering economic transformation.
Expansion has largely been buoyed by the low-cost manufacture and export of goods from Nike shoes to Intel processors, and today it is one of Asia's fastest-growing economies with GDP rising 7.08 percent last year.
Vuong, CEO of Vinfast's parent company Vingroup, started out in business selling dried noodles in Ukraine, and has grown his empire to become Vietnam's biggest conglomerate.
It owns a string of holiday resorts, luxury condominiums, shopping malls, convenience stores, schools, hospitals and farms across the country, with Forbes estimating Vuong's net worth at $7.8 billion.
Koh Yu-hwan, a professor of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University, told AFP that Vietnam was "an ideal country to benchmark for North Korea" as it was "also a socialist country that has achieved significant economic growth through reform".
"But it will be hard for North Korea to adopt Vietnam's model," he added.
Pyongyang has quietly been reforming its sanctions-hit economy for years, loosening the shackles on state-owned enterprises and turning a blind eye to private business activities, but the state retains a significant role.
And it has a mountain to climb -- its infrastructure is ramshackle, electricity supplies are intermittent, and several past foreign investments have failed.
The North would want a state-led development strategy controlled by the authorities, Koh said. But Vietnam's growth has been fuelled by foreign investment from firms such as South Korean telecoms giant Samsung, which has poured in billions of dollars.
That "will not work for North Korea", Koh said. But it could still "learn a lot from Vietnam", which was achieving rapid growth "while maintaining its socialist system".
Going to one of Samsung's plants in Vietnam was politically impossible for Kim, he said, but "visiting the Vinfast plant makes sense since it's Vietnam's success model through a traditional Vietnamese method."
"That is what North Korea wants -- success through a North Korean model."
From Brangelina to Kim and Trump: Key Hanoi summit venues
Hanoi (AFP) Feb 27, 2019 - The hotel hosting the dinner later Wednesday between US President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un has welcomed stars ranging from Charlie Chaplin to Brad Pitt and offers tours of its war-time bomb shelters.
Here's a look at the historic Colonial-era Metropole Hotel, as well as other key summit locations around the Vietnamese capital.
- Graham Greene suite anyone? -
The names of the Metropole's suites pay tribute some of its more famous guests -- authors Graham Greene and Somerset Maugham, and actor Charlie Chaplin, who spent his honeymoon here. The bar even serves up a $10 "Charlie Chaplin" cocktail -- a gin, apricot brandy and lime juice concoction.
Not yet deemed worthy of a suite named after them are Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, although the hotel does boast a cocktail lounge, restaurant and whisky lounge called "Angelina" where "the very best from Europe and the New World comes in perfect measure."
The hotel is now run by the French-owned Accor Group and is one of one Hanoi's priciest hotels with publicly listed top rooms going for $1,300 per night.
- Bombs and brunch -
The French-built Metropole opened for business in 1901 and has played a full part in Hanoi's tumultuous history ever since.
After the French were defeated in the epic battle of Dien Bien Phu of 1954, the hotel was taken over by Vietnamese owners and renamed the "Thong Nhat Hotel" which means "Reunification" in the local language.
During the Vietnam War the hotel built underground bomb shelters -- today opened for tours for hotel guests. According to the hotel's website, the shelters were discovered by chance during renovation of the Bamboo Bar in 2011.
American singer Joan Baez stayed at the hotel in 1972 as part of her anti-war campaign and wrote her song "Where Are You Now, My Son?" during her stay.
- Kim's Rolls-Royce accommodation -
North Korea's Kim is staying at the modern Melia Hotel in downtown Hanoi, which has previously welcomed world leaders including Cuba's Raul Castro, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Iran's Hassan Rouhani. Their images adorn the lavish lobby.
Opened 20 years ago, the 306-room hotel is also home to the city's only Rolls-Royce dealership catering to Vietnam's fast-growing class of super-rich.
Trump and Kim bonded over luxury cars at their first summit in Singapore last June when the US leader opened the door of his presidential wheels, dubbed "The Beast", to let Kim take a peek inside.
However, the bill for its top room, the "level suite" is "flexible and top secret", a staff member told AFP this week.
- 'Double-booked' -
The Melia was the scene of a rather awkward double-booking snafu as the White House press centre was slated to be located there -- as well as Kim and his copious entourage.
Just one problem: The North Koreans took exception to the presence of the White House press corps in the same building and the reporters were turfed out to the International Press Centre.
NBC's White House correspondent Peter Alexander tweeted that he was booted out by a gruff Vietnamese security official and ordered not to use the elevator from the seventh floor ... because that would mean stepping on the freshly rolled-out red carpet prepared for Kim.
- 'Free-flow oysters' -
Trump's hotel, the JW Marriott, boasts one of Hanoi's most expensive brunches that may tempt the famously heavy-eating president.
For the eye-watering (by Vietnamese standards) price of 1.25 million dong ($55), diners are treated to a "free flow of house wine, champagne and oyster" as well as other delights such as lobsters, foie gras and abalone.
However, Trump might pass given the bulky five-course lunch he was served at lunch on Wednesday ahead of his dinner with Kim -- with Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal on the menu.
Former US president Barack Obama stayed at the JW Marriott -- about 10 kilometers from Hanoi's historic downtown -- when he visited Vietnam in 2016.
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Nuclear weapons on menu at Trump-Kim dinner
Hanoi (AFP) Feb 26, 2019
Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un meet Wednesday in Hanoi for the second date in an unlikely friendship that the US president hopes will push North Korea's reclusive leader closer to reaching a deal on his nuclear arsenal. Trump touched down late Tuesday on Air Force One after flying half way around the world from Washington, while Kim arrived earlier, following a two-and-a-half-day train journey from Pyongyang. On completing their marathon trips, the protagonists of international diplomacy's most su ... read more
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