BANGKOK — Vietnam’s selection as the venue for the second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is largely a matter of convenience and security, but not without bigger stakes.

Washington’s goal for the talks Feb. 27-28 is for North Korea to agree give up its nuclear weapons. North Korea frames the issue more broadly, seeking a removal of the “nuclear threat” from U.S. military forces in South Korea.

Host Vietnam hopes to boost its diplomatic leverage against its powerful neighbor, China, which contests waters in the South China Sea claimed by Hanoi.

But Vietnam’s history as a U.S. adversary that transitioned on its own terms to a dynamic free-market economy under a communist political system suggests a larger meaning for the summit.

“By choosing Vietnam, the two leaders send a strong strategic message to the world that they are willing to make a breakthrough decision to turn an enemy into a friend and together make the world a better place, following the example of the U.S.-Vietnam relationship,” said Le Hong Hiep, a research fellow at the ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.

A FRESH, SECURE STAGE

America’s past military involvement in Vietnam, whether it’s seen as tragic or noble, provides a historically dramatic stage for Trump to again draw attention to his foreign policy accomplishments.

As a single-party communist state, Vietnam boasts tight political control and an efficient security apparatus, and successfully hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in 2017, and the regional edition of the high-powered World Economic Forum last year, both in the central coastal city of Danang.

“Like Singapore, where they met last time, Vietnam is a very secure place,” said Murray Hiebert, senior associate of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “Vietnam’s security police are able to keep away crowds of the curious and keep journalists in designated areas.”

Trump’s attendance at the 2017 APEC meeting means “he’s familiar with the country and has good rapport with its leaders,” Hiebert said.

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COMMUNIST TIES

This is friendly turf for Kim. Even though North Korea has remained mired in Cold War isolation while Vietnam’s postwar path led toward integration with the globalized economy, the two communist countries share a history of anti-imperialist struggle and ambivalent relations with common neighbor China.

“Vietnam and North Korea have long had fraternal communist ties, so North Korea is familiar with the country and its officials. North Korea would also feel confident that Vietnam’s security apparatus could secure Kim’s protection,” Hiebert said.

There’s also the bonus that a flight from Pyongyang to a meeting in Vietnam is roughly two-thirds of the six-hour flying time to Singapore, and none of it over hostile territory.

A forward-looking North Korea might learn something from Vietnam’s impressive economic growth due to “bold economic reforms, proactive integration into the world economy, and excellent partnerships with strategic partners, with the U.S. and South Korea among the most important ones,” said Vu Minh Khuong, associate professor at Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a similar point when he visited Hanoi last July after two days of talks in North Korea.

“The leaders of Vietnam realized their country could reform, it could open up and build relationships without threatening the country’s sovereignty, its independence, and its form of government,” he said in a speech to Hanoi’s business community. “I have a message for Chairman Kim Jong Un: President Trump believes your country can replicate this path. It’s yours if you’ll seize the moment.”

WHAT VIETNAM GAINS

“Vietnam is locked in a pretty intense rivalry with China in the South China Sea, so Hanoi is looking for regional and international diplomatic support as a hedge against Beijing, and hosting a summit like this would certainly strengthen its international profile,” said CSIS scholar Hiebert.

In particular, helping Washington achieve its Korean policy goals could help fulfill Vietnam’s desire for closer relations with the U.S., both to encourage trade and investment and serve as a strategic counterweight to China.

Trump’s abandonment of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade group dampened hopes for a takeoff in trade, and Vietnam’s poor human rights record, especially its harsh repression of political dissidents, has hurt chances for closer security links.

However, intense media coverage of the summit would attract significant international attention from tourists and investors, said research fellow Hiep.

Story: Grant Peck

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he will hold a two-day summit with North Korea leader Kim Jong Un Feb. 27-28 in Vietnam to continue his efforts to persuade Kim to give up his nuclear weapons.

Trump has said his outreach to Kim and their first meeting last June in Singapore opened a path to peace. But there is not yet a concrete plan for how denuclearization could be implemented.

Denuclearizing North Korea is something that has eluded the U.S. for more than two decades, since it was first learned that North Korea was close to acquiring the means for nuclear weapons.

“As part of a bold new diplomacy, we continue our historic push for peace on the Korean Peninsula,” Trump said in his State of the Union address.

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told Congress last week that U.S. intelligence officials do not believe Kim will eliminate his nuclear weapons or the capacity to build more because he believes they are key to the survival of the regime. Satellite video taken since the June summit has indicated North Korea is continuing to produce nuclear materials at its weapons factories.

Last year, North Korea released American detainees, suspended nuclear and long-range missile tests and dismantled a nuclear test site and parts of a rocket launch facility without the presence of outside experts.

It has repeatedly demanded that the United States reciprocate with measures such as sanctions relief, but Washington has called for North Korea to take steps such as providing a detailed account of its nuclear and missile facilities that would be inspected and dismantled under a potential deal.

At the second Trump-Kim summit, some experts say North Korea is likely to seek to trade the destruction of its main Yongbyon nuclear complex for a U.S. promise to formally declare the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, open a liaison office in Pyongyang and allow the North to resume some lucrative economic projects with South Korea.

“Our hostages have come home, nuclear testing has stopped, and there has not been a missile launch in 15 months,” Trump said. “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.

“Much work remains to be done, but my relationship with Kim Jong Un is a good one,” he said in announcing their second meeting.

Stephen Biegun, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s special representative for North Korea, is hopeful, but acknowledges that many issues make it especially complicated for the two countries to “embark on a diplomatic initiative of this magnitude.” Biegun was in Pyongyang on Tuesday.

The Vietnamese city where the two leaders will meet was not announced. The country, however, is keen to project itself on the world stage. It is a single-party communist state that boasts of tight political control and a tough security apparatus similar to Singapore’s.

Where Singapore leans West, generally appreciative of U.S. influence in Asia, Vietnam leans East. Even with its edgy relationship with China, it has a long fraternal history with Asia’s communist states. This is friendly ground for Kim and closer than Singapore.

On a related issue, the State Department said this week that the U.S. and South Korea have reached a tentative agreement on sharing the costs of keeping 28,500 American troops in South Korea, but no final deal has been signed to replace the existing agreement, which expired at the end of 2018. South Korea pays more than $800 million a year, but Trump has demanded that Seoul pay 50 percent more.

News that a tentative agreement has been reached offers relief to those who worried Trump would use the lack of a deal as a reason to pull U.S. troops out of South Korea as part of negotiations with Kim. North Korea has claimed that the presence of American troops in the South is proof that the U.S. has hostile intentions in the region.

Trump said after his first meeting with Kim in June that while he’d like to bring troops home, “that’s not part of the equation right now.”

As Asian-Americans across the U.S. mark the Lunar New Year on Tuesday, they can celebrate by eating Mickey Mouse-shaped tofu, sporting a pair of Year of the Pig-inspired Nike shoes and by snacking on pricey cupcakes.

The delicacies and traditions that once made a generation of Asian-Americans feel foreign are now fodder for merchandizing. Between now and Feb. 17, Disney California Adventure Park is offering “Asian eats” that include the Mickey-shaped tofu and purple yam macarons. Nike is issuing a limited-edition Chinese New Year collection of shoes with traditional Chinese patchwork. And housewares giant Williams Sonoma has a slew of Lunar New Year dishware and its website offers a set of nine “Year of the Pig” cupcakes for USD$80.

Robert Passikoff, a marketing consultant and founder of Brand Keys Inc., said there’s been a “reawakening” in the last few years of the United States’ world view of China. But it’s also about differentiating your business and growing revenue, not necessarily inclusion.

“They’re not there as social workers to create harmony among the disenfranchised people,” Passikoff said. “The other side is brands are all looking for an itch, they’re all looking for some way to engage customers. And if the Lunar New Year will do it, why not?”

Chinese fast-food chain Panda Express funded a New Year’s-themed interactive exhibit inside a Los Angeles mall. “The House of Good Fortune: A Lunar New Year,” includes different rooms showcasing customs, like a room of “flying” red envelopes and a “hall of long noodles,” a customary dish that symbolizes long life.

“Crazy Rich Asians” cast member Harry Shum Jr. promoted the exhibit and brushed off those who may scoff at the company’s efforts.

“I think it’s good to be reminded of these traditions. It’s been so important for many generations before us to try and pass that on and also experience it in a new way,” Shum said.

Andrea Cherng, the Panda Restaurant Group’s chief marketing officer and the daughter of Chinese-American founders Andrew and Peggy Cherng, said she knows some Asian-Americans will roll their eyes.

“Now the reality about Panda is that we were many people’s first Chinese experience in the U.S.,” Cherng said. “But then what a fantastic opportunity for us to be able to bridge cultures and bring to them our interpretation of what’s so special about this holiday.”

Christopher Tai, 37, of San Francisco, recently bought a Golden State Warriors jersey specially made for the Lunar New Year as a gift for his girlfriend’s father. The design includes the Chinese character for “warrior.” He said the jersey shows an effort at inclusion.

“They’re recognizing an underrepresented part of their fan base,” Tai said.

But he wonders if shoppers who snap up Williams Sonoma dishware will come away learning anything.

“I feel like a lot of people are attracted to these aesthetic elements like say red, dragons, dogs or shiny gold, without really knowing the significance of the colors and symbols and what the animals mean,” Tai said.

“There’s a part of me that’s still that kid who felt my culture was very ‘other.’ From that standpoint, I’m happy to see it more mainstream,” said Lisa Hsia, 37, of Oakland, California. “But at the same time when I see Chinese New Year shoes or whatever, I have to ask, who’s putting this together and who’s it for?”

Most Chinese traditionally ring in the Lunar New Year, which is assigned one of 12 animals each year off the Chinese zodiac, with a family dinner the evening before. The meals typically include a whole chicken, a whole fish, pork, noodles, spring rolls and dumplings, whose shape resembles ancient Chinese gold ingot currency.

Other customs include giving money-filled red envelopes to children or single young adults and sharing mandarin oranges, which represent good fortune. The celebrations, which are also commemorated in Vietnam and other countries with ethnic Chinese communities, can last up to two weeks.

As Asian populations in the U.S. and social media use grow, it’s easier for people to be aware of the holiday and its customs.

Xi Chen, who is from China but teaches Mandarin to middle-schoolers in Hamilton, Massachusetts, incorporated dumpling-making as part of her Lunar New Year lesson.

“We don’t have many Asian restaurants in town. Some students told me it was the first time in their life they’ve tried dumplings,” Chen said.

Stella Loh, 39, of Los Altos, California, said as a kid, she often got questions like, “Didn’t we already celebrate the new year?”

But now, even non-Asian co-workers have been wishing her a happy new year.

“I’d never really brought it up before,” Loh said. “It’s always nice to know people who aren’t Chinese recognize a piece of your own culture.”

Story: Terry Tang

NORFOLK, Virginia — The racist yearbook photo that could sink Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s career may have been mistakenly placed on his profile page – but even if it were put there intentionally, it’s unlikely that many students would have noticed, according to alumni who put together the publication or submitted pictures to it 35 years ago.

Dr. Giac Chan Nguyen-Tan, a physician practicing in Connecticut, remembers that a page he laid out for the 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook was changed without his knowledge before publication.

“Could (the offensive photo) have been slipped in there? Absolutely,” he said, adding that he doesn’t remember laying out Northam’s page, which ended up including a photo of one person in blackface and another dressed in a Ku Klux Klan hood and robes.

Fellow yearbook staffer Dr. William Elwood disagrees. Elwood said he doubts any photos were mixed up – and he says it’s unlikely that someone could have pulled a prank because a limited number of people had keys to the yearbook room. He said he took his job seriously and received no complaints after the yearbook was published.

Regardless of how the photo got there, it’s possible not many noticed what was in the yearbook; few students enrolled in the intense medical school program took the publication very seriously – or even looked at it – after it was published, several classmates said. For many, the yearbook was simply not a priority. Northam and his former roommate, Dr. John “Rob” Marsh, rushed off to the military immediately after graduation. Others embarked on their residencies.

“The yearbook comes out in the fall when you’re gone,” said Marsh, who roomed with Northam for two years before graduating in 1983.

The half page that Northam was allotted in the yearbook includes three pictures, including one of him in a suit. A fourth photo shows a man in blackface standing next to a person in a full KKK costume. At a news conference Saturday, Northam remarked that a former, unidentified classmate told him she thought “numerous pages” of the yearbook had received the wrong photos. At the same time, however, Northam acknowledged that he wore blackface to imitate Michael Jackson at a dance contest in Texas decades ago.

The image was one of at least three blackface photos in the 1984 publication, which was reviewed by an Associated Press reporter. One of the others shows a man in blackface who is dressed up as a woman wearing a wig. A caption reads: “‘Baby Love,’ who ever thought Diana Ross would make it to Medical School!”

Calling the photos “shockingly abhorrent,” school leaders said they have commissioned an investigation into all past yearbooks and the school’s culture.

“We are acutely hurt by the events that occurred,” school president Dr. Richard V. Homan said at a news conference Tuesday. “But it does not compare to the feelings of outrage and pain for our minority and African-American community here at EVMS, Virginia and around the nation.”

Homan said when he discovered in early 2014 that photos of students posing in Confederate uniforms had appeared in the previous year’s yearbook, he eliminated the program, which he said students had lost interest in anyway.

The 1984 photo became public after it was posted Friday on the conservative website Big League Politics. The image set off a firestorm of criticism and calls from both state and national Democrats and Republicans for the 59-year-old Democratic governor to resign. Northam initially apologized for appearing in the photo, but the next day said it was not him in the photo. On Tuesday, the governor gave no public indication of whether he would step down. He spent Monday in conversations with top advisers about whether he can still govern.

Retired physician and former Northam classmate Walt Broadnax, one of the few black students in the school’s 1984 class, said he believes Northam’s claim that he wasn’t in the photo.

“There is no way anyone would tolerate someone going to a party in blackface,” said Broadnax, 60. “If I had known about it then, it would have been an issue.”

M. Scott Klavans, a Florida urologist and former Northam classmate, told the AP he is pretty sure the photo was taken at a Halloween party where attendees were told to dress up in the crudest or most obnoxious costumes they could imagine.

Klavans said he doesn’t remember whether Northam was wearing either of the costumes in the photo, but he said there were a “lot of people dressed up in costumes that were not appropriate at the time.”

Dr. Kevin Lynch, a Maryland physician who was friends with Northam in medical school, said he does remember occasionally seeing people wearing blackface at parties, but doesn’t recall Northam ever doing so.

“He’s done great things. He’s not a racist,” Lynch said.

A group of nine alumni who attended the medical school with Northam, including Nguyen-Tan, Marsh, and Virginia ophthalmologist Dr. Lisa Framm Sklar, released a statement Tuesday in which they denounced the photo, but also said they don’t believe Northam is in it or that the governor “ever engaged in, promoted, tolerated, or condoned racism.”

Sklar, who is Jewish, and Nguyen-Tan, who was born in Vietnam, both said in separate interviews that they did not perceive any kind of racist atmosphere or bigotry among students.

Northam is “the furthest thing he can be from someone who is a racist or bigot,” Nguyen-Tan said.

Elwood said he saw Northam’s page shortly after publication but wasn’t shocked or outraged.

“It looked like it was done at a Halloween party,” he said. “The political and social climate of this country is far different than it was 35 years ago.”

Story: Ben Finley