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Trump 'offered Kim Jong Un a ride home on Air Force One'

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Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2019/overseas/01/18/20190118-trump-kim-jong-un.jpg"/><figcaption>US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un walk after lunch at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore June 12, 2018. <em>Jonathan Ernst, Reuters/File</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>SEOUL - Donald Trump offered North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a ride home on Air Force One after a summit in Hanoi two years ago, according to a new BBC documentary.</p><p>Kim and Trump first engaged in a war of words and mutual threats, before an extraordinary diplomatic bromance that featured headline-grabbing summits and a declaration of love by the former US president.</p><p>But no substantive progress was made, with the process deadlocked after the pair&#x27;s meeting in Hanoi broke up over sanctions relief and what Pyongyang would be willing to give up in return.</p><p>According to a BBC documentary, &quot;Trump Takes on the World&quot;, the US president &quot;stunned even the most seasoned diplomats&quot; by offering Kim a lift home on Air Force One after the 2019 summit in Vietnam.</p><p>If Kim had accepted the offer, it would have put the North Korean leader -- and probably some of his entourage -- inside the US president&#x27;s official aircraft and seen it enter North Korean airspace, raising multiple security issues.</p><p>In the event, Kim turned it down.</p><p>&quot;President Trump offered Kim a lift home on Air Force One,&quot; Matthew Pottinger, the top Asia expert on Trump&#x27;s National Security Council, told the BBC, it reported at the weekend.</p><p>&quot;The president knew that Kim had arrived on a multi-day train ride through China into Hanoi and the president said: &#x27;I can get you home in two hours if you want.&#x27; Kim declined.&quot;</p><p>For his first summit with Trump in Singapore in 2018, Kim hitched a ride on an Air China plane, with Beijing keen to keep North Korea -- whose existence as a buffer state keeps US troops in the South well away from China&#x27;s borders -- firmly within its sphere of influence.</p><p>During the Singapore summit, Trump gave Kim a glimpse inside his presidential state car -- a $1.5 million Cadillac also known as &quot;The Beast&quot; -- in a show of their newly friendly rapport.</p><p>But last month Kim said the US was his nuclear-armed nation&#x27;s &quot;biggest enemy&quot;, adding that Washington&#x27;s &quot;policy against North Korea will never change&quot; no matter &quot;who is in power&quot;.</p><p>North Korean official media have yet to refer to Joe Biden -- who beat Trump in last year&#x27;s election -- by name as US president.</p><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qQCFb06lO0k?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

<p>SEOUL - Donald Trump offered North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a ride home on Air Force One after a summit in Hanoi two years ago, according to a new BBC documentary.</p>

SEOUL - Donald Trump offered North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a ride home on Air Force One after a summit in Hanoi two years ago, according to a new BBC documentary.