First Ladies Won't Come to Hanoi

Will Kim Yo-jong, Ivanka Trump meet?

By Kim Bo-eun

The first ladies of North Korea and the US are unlikely to come to Hanoi.

There had been speculation about a possible meeting between Ri Sol-ju and Melania Trump, but North Korea and the US appear to have excluded any events that could take attention away from the summit.

Ri was not on the list of North Korean delegates accompanying leader Kim Jong-un to Hanoi for the summit with the US, in the North's Rodong Sinmun's report on Sunday. She was absent from footage unveiled by North Korean media of her husband Kim departing Pyongyang.

Sara Cook of CBS News posted on Twitter that Melania Trump will not be traveling to Vietnam, citing this was confirmed by her spokesperson Stephanie Grisham

Neither of the first ladies were present at the first summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump in Singapore last June.

However, there had been expectations that they may meet this time, as announcements were made the summit would take place over two days.

Ri accompanied her husband for two summits with South Korea and three with China

Rep. Kim Jong-dae of the Justice Party, who is known as a security expert, said relations between Pyongyang and Washington weren't ripe enough for the first ladies of the countries to meet yet.

'I don't think bilateral relations are developed to the...