TALKS BETWEEN DONALD TRUMP AND KIM JONG UN COLLAPSED THURSDAY AFTER THE TWO SIDES FAILED TO BRIDGE A STANDOFF OVER U.S. SANCTIONS. ‘SOMETIMES YOU JUST HAVE TO WALK,’ TRUMP SAID.
• The Hanoi summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jongun was abruptly cut short Thursday as the pair failed to reach an agreement over how North Korea should reduce or dismantle its nuclear program.
A working lunch and signing ceremony, which had been pre-announced by the White House, were cancelled at the last minute as the talks in Vietnam hit a sudden impasse at around midday.
Trump said Kim, the North Korean leader, had insisted all economic sanctions against his country be lifted, while not agreeing to give up his entire nuclear arsenal — a position the U.S. president could not accept. “Sometimes you just have to walk,” Trump told a press conference, adding that he did not want to sign a bad deal. No new summit date was agreed.
He insisted that progress had been made and that he and Kim shook hands and remained on good terms. Trump said Kim had agreed not to restart nuclear and missile tests and the U.S. would not restart military exercises in South Korea — continuing the status quo. The failure to make progress in the talks disappointed U.S. allies. A spokesman for South Korea’s president called it “regrettable.” Trump also drew criticism at home by admitting he took Kim “at his word” when the dictator said he had not known of the imprisonment and torture of Otto Warmbier, which led to the death of the American student in 2017. “I don’t believe he knew about it. He felt very badly about it,” Trump said. The comments, which recalled the president’s support for authoritarian regimes in Saudi Arabia and Russia, were rebuked by Democrats and Republicans. Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the house intelligence committee, described the remarks as “detestable,” while Rob Portman, a Republican senator, said “we should never let North Korea off the hook” for Warmbier’s death. The first sign that the talks had gone wrong came as reporters waited for the leaders and their teams to arrive for lunch in an elegant dining room at the Metropole, the French colonial-era hotel that had hosted the summit. Name cards had already been laid out on eight empty chairs and bouquets of flowers placed on the white tablecloth in anticipation of the dishes to come. The lunch was first delayed, then suddenly cancelled. Outside the Metropole, Kim’s stern league of bodyguards sprang into action, jumping into moving cars as his cavalcade roared off. Confusion reigned for 20 minutes until a statement from Sarah Sanders, the White House spokeswoman. Trump and Kim had enjoyed “very good and constructive meetings” while discussing “various ways to advance denuclearization and economic-driven concepts,” she said. However, “no agreement was reached at this time.”
The statement was a dramatic twist to a morning that had begun in such a promising way. Kim and Trump had greeted each other warmly as they reconvened their talks at 9 a.m. after dining the previous evening on steak and pear kimchi.
Their discussion had been “great” and they had “developed something special,” said a buoyed Trump. Kim, treated as an unapproachable deity in North Korea, took the unprecedented step of answering a question from a foreign journalist for the first time, telling the Washington Post that he antici-
I DON’T BELIEVE HE KNEW ABOUT (TORTURE OF OTTO WARMBIER). HE FELT VERY BADLY ABOUT IT.
pated “good results” from the day ahead.
The two leaders strolled briefly for the cameras through the hotel’s leafy courtyard before getting down to serious business. The camaraderie continued during a midmorning briefing to reporters about their progress.
Kim answered more questions, confirming that he was willing to denuclearize and was discussing “concrete steps” with Trump. Both leaders talked up the possibility of opening diplomatic liaison offices to build trust between their countries. The consistency of the positive messaging made the failure to reach any form of deal more surprising. The U.S. was at pains to stress that talks with North Korea had not collapsed.