Summit collapse clouds future of U.S.-North Korea nuclear diplomacy
HANOI, (Reuters) - A second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un collapsed yesterday over sanctions, and the two sides gave conflicting accounts of what happened, raising questions about the future of their denuclearisation negotiations.
Trump said two days of talks in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi had made good progress in building relations and on the main issue of denuclearisation, but it was important not to rush into a bad deal. He said he had walked away because of unacceptable North Korean demands.
“It was all about the sanctions,” Trump told a news conference after the talks were cut short. “Basically, they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, and we couldn’t do that.”
However, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told a news conference past midnight and hours after Trump left Hanoi that North Korea had sought only a partial lifting of sanctions “related to people’s livelihoods and unrelated to military sanctions”. He said it had offered a realistic proposal involving the dismantling of all of its main nuclear site at Yongbyon, including plutonium and uranium facilities, by engineers from both countries.
“This is the biggest denuclearisation step we can take based on the current level of trust between the two countries,” Ri said in a rare exchange between North Korean officials and reporters.
“It’s hard to say there will be something better than what we offered. We may not have such an opportunity again. We need such a first step on the road to complete denuclearisation. Our fundamental stance will never change and even if U.S. seeks further talks, our position won’t change,” Ri said.
North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui told the same briefing she had the impression that Kim “might lose his willingness to pursue a deal” after the U.S. side rejected a partial lifting of sanctions in return for destruction of Yongbyon, “something we had never offered before”.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, asked about North Korea’s statements, said the president was aware of the comments and the White House had nothing to add to what Trump said at the Hanoi news conference.
Trump spoke to the leaders of South Korea and Japan on his way back from Hanoi and told them that the United States would continue to work with them and talk to North Korea, Sanders said.
Reporting on the summit, North Korean state media KCNA said Kim and Trump had a constructive and sincere exchange of views and decided to continue productive talks, without mentioning that the talks ended abruptly with no agreement reached.
The meeting was an important chance to build trust and lift the relationship between the United States and North Korea to the next level, it said.
Kim expressed gratitude to Trump for traveling so far and actively putting in efforts to get results, KCNA added.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the two countries could hold further meetings, but there was no plan to do so immediately. The United Nations and the United States ratcheted up sanctions on North Korea when the reclusive state conducted repeated nuclear and ballistic missile tests in 2017, cutting off its main sources of hard cash.
NO LUNCH
Trump and Kim were supposed to have had a working lunch at the French-colonial-era Metropole hotel after a morning of meetings.
“Sometimes you have to walk, and this was just one of those times,” Trump said, adding “it was a friendly walk”.
At the same briefing, Trump warned he could also walk away from a trade deal with China if it were not good enough, even as his economic advisors touted “fantastic” progress towards an agreement to end trade disputes.
Failure to reach an agreement on North Korea marks a setback for Trump, a self-styled dealmaker under pressure at home over his ties to Russia and testimony from Michael Cohen, his former personal lawyer who accused him of breaking the law while in office.