Kim Jong-un leaves for Pyongyang after Vietnam visit

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un left Hanoi on Saturday for Pyongyang by train, after concluding a historic state visit to Vietnam, following his failed summit with US President Donald Trump earlier in the week.

Before leaving for his country, he visited the mausoleum of Vietnamese national hero Ho Chi Minh, with whom his grandfather Kim Il-Sung met in Hanoi in 1964. That marked the last official visit by a North Korean leader to Vietnam, reports Efe news.

After the short stop, he travelled by car to the Dong Dang station on the border with China and boarded a high-security train to return to his country.

A crowd waving Vietnamese and North Korean flags had gathered at the gates of the railway station to bid farewell to the leader of North Korea.

Kim Jong-un waved to the gathered crowd and boarded the train, flanked by his security personnel.

On Friday, Hanoi hosted a grand dinner for Kim Jong-un.

Earlier in the day, he met Vietnamese President Nguyen Phu Trong.

During the meeting, both leaders pledged to reinforce ties between the two countries that share historical and ideological affinities owing to the communist root of their regimes.

In recent months, North Korea has shown an interest in the economic transition undertaken by Vietnam since the mid-1980s.

Kim Jong-un arrived in Hanoi on Tuesday to participate in his second summit with Trump which ended ahead of schedule on Thursday after the two sides failed to agree on the denuclearization of North Korea and the lifting of sanctions.

The two countries had presented different versions of the meet, after it concluded, leading to confusion over its outcome.

However, on Friday, the negotiating teams of both the countries underlined the progress achieved during the talks and made an appeal to continue with the talks and hoped to reach an agreement at a forthcoming summit.

--IANS

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