Days before a second U.S.-North Korea summit, much rests on the shoulders of a former auto executive trying to find common ground between an American president seeking a big foreign policy win and a North Korean leader who seems unlikely to hand him one.

Stephen Biegun, named Donald Trump¡¯s special envoy for North Korea six months ago, flew to Hanoi ahead of this week¡¯s meeting in the Vietnamese capital where Trump hopes to get closer to his goal of persuading Pyongyang to give up a nuclear weapons program that threatens the United States.

In meetings with his North Korean counterpart, Biegun, a 55-year-old former Ford Motor Co. executive, aims to hammer out a joint summit statement showing concrete progress beyond vague commitments agreed to by Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at their first meeting in June.