Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, arrived in Vietnam early Tuesday, as he prepared to meet with President Trump to discuss a range of thorny diplomatic issues, including the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

However the summit meeting turns out, Mr. Kim’s trip to Vietnam will be symbolic in other ways. That is partly because Vietnam and North Korea have a long friendship that includes cooperation during the Vietnam War, as well as complex relationships with China, their mutual neighbor.

South Korea and the United States also see Vietnam’s postwar reconciliation with old enemies — and its booming economic growth of the last few decades — as a potential model for Mr. Kim’s government to follow. His movements and comments in Vietnam may offer a glimpse of whether he agrees.

Mr. Kim arrived by armored train at the China-Vietnam border around 8:20 a.m. Hanoi time, and got into a motorcade heading south toward the capital. Here’s a rundown of where Mr. Kim may go in Vietnam, and the political and historical symbolism that would lie just below the surface.