The nuclear summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has collapsed amid a standoff over US sanctions.
North Korea is disputing President Donald Trump’s account of why the summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un collapsed, insisting the North demanded only partial sanctions relief in exchange for shutting down its main nuclear complex.
Trump, who was on his way back to Washington on Thursday, said before leaving Hanoi that the talks broke down because North Korea’s leader insisted that all the punishing sanctions the US has imposed on Pyongyang be lifted without the North committing to eliminate its nuclear arsenal.
The president made no mention of the disagreement as he addressed US troops during a stopover at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska.
Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho commented on the talks during an abruptly scheduled middle-of-the-night news conference.
Earlier on Thursday in Hanoi, Trump had told reporters the North had demanded a full removal of sanctions in exchange for shutting the Yongbyon nuclear facility.
Ri said the North was also ready to offer in writing a permanent halt of the country’s nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests and that Washington wasted an opportunity that « may not come again. »
He said the North’s position wouldn’t change even if the United States offers to resume another round of dialogue.
Trump had said in Hanoi that there had been a proposed agreement « ready to be signed ». However, he said after the summit was cut short, « Sometimes you have to walk ».
Asked about the North Koreans’ claim that they only demanded partial sanctions in exchange for shutting down its main nuclear facility, White House press Secretary Sarah Sanders said: « I’ll refer you back to the president and Secretary Pompeo’s remarks at the press conference » in Hanoi.
Mere hours after both nations had seemed hopeful of a deal, the two leaders’ motorcades roared away from the downtown Hanoi summit site within minutes of each other, their lunch cancelled and a signing ceremony scuttled.
The president’s closing news conference was hurriedly moved up, and he departed for Washington more than two hours ahead of schedule.
The disintegration of talks came after Trump and Kim had appeared to be ready to inch toward normalising relations between their still technically warring nations and as the American leader dampened expectations that their negotiations would yield an agreement by North Korea to take concrete steps toward ending a nuclear program that Pyongyang likely sees as its strongest security guarantee.
