AP President Donald Trump is greeted after arriving on Air Force One at Noi Bai International Airport, in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Tuesday, ahead of his second summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, scheduled for today.

HANOI, Vietnam — President Donald Trump hoped for “great things” from his second meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un as he paid a courtesy call today on his Vietnamese hosts. Kim was expected to take in some sights before the leaders open their second nuclear summit with private talks and a social dinner.

But the carnival-like atmosphere in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, with street artists painting likenesses of the leaders and vendors hawking T-shirts emblazoned with their faces, stood in contrast to the serious items on the agenda: North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Trump and Kim first met last June in Singapore, a summit that was long on historic pageantry but short on any enforceable agreements for North Korea to give up its nuclear arsenal.

North Korea has spent decades, at great economic sacrifice, building its nuclear program, and there is widespread skepticism that it will give away that program cheaply.

Trump has praised Pyongyang for ceasing missile tests and has appeared to ease up on demanding a timeline for disarmament. He hopes that Kim, who is seeking relief from crushing U.S. sanctions, will opt to give up his nuclear weapons program in exchange for help revitalizing his country’s economy.

Trump has held up the economic vitality of former U.S. adversary Vietnam as model for North Korea should it abandon its nuclear weapons pursuit.

As the U.S. delegation, led by Trump, sat down with the Vietnamese, Trump talked of being driven through Hanoi after he arrived and seeing “how Vietnam is thriving. And very importantly we have a very big dinner tonight, as you know, and meetings with North Korea, Chairman Kim, and we both felt very good about having this very important summit in Vietnam because you really are an example as to what can happen, with good thinking.”

Trump thanked his hosts and added that “hopefully great things will happen later on with our meeting” with the North Koreans.

The president sounded a similar message about Vietnamese prosperity in a tweet before he left his heavily guarded hotel.

“Vietnam is thriving like few places on earth. North Korea would be the same, and very quickly, if it would denuclearize,” Trump tweeted today, hours before he and Kim were due to meet again. “The potential is AWESOME, a great opportunity, like almost none other in history, for my friend Kim Jong Un. We will know fairly soon – Very Interesting!”

Trump had a full day of meetings with Vietnamese officials on tap before the one-on-one sit-down and dinner with Kim later today. Kim was expected to leave his locked-down hotel to visit various sites in Hanoi.