TRUMP ‘WALKS’ AS N KOREA TALKS END SANS DEAL
US TURNS DOWN NORTH KOREA’S DEMAND TO LIFT ALL SANCTIONS
HANOI: US President Donald Trump said he walked out of his second summit with Kim Jong Un after the two leaders couldn’t agree on a deal to relieve North Korea of US sanctions in exchange for Pyongyang giving up much of its nuclear weapons programme.
Trump said Kim “wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, and we couldn’t do that”. In exchange, the North Korean leader had offered to dismantle its main nuclear facility at Yongbyon. “It wasn’t enough,” the US president said at a news conference after the summit collapsed.
The US presented Kim with evidence of additional secret nuclear sites, surprising the North Koreans, according to Trump. US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said that even without Yongbyon, the country would still possess missiles, warheads and other elements of a nuclear programme that were unacceptable to the US. “Sometimes you have to walk,” Trump told reporters. “I could have signed an agreement today and then you people would have said, ‘Oh! What a terrible deal.”’
The summit’s collapse sent global stocks sliding as the future of US-North Korea nuclear talks remained uncertain. While Trump said the meeting ended amicably with a handshake, he hasn’t committed to another summit with Kim.
“We just felt it wasn’t appropriate to sign an agreement today,” Trump said, adding that he was open to more talks in the future. “I want to take off the sanctions so badly because I want that country to grow. But they had to give up more.”
South Korean President Moon Jae In’s spokesman called the outcome “regrettable”, but said “there has been progress that was more meaningful than any time before”.
TRUMP BELIEVES KIM ON DEATH OF STUDENT
Trump said he takes Kim “at his word” that the latter was unaware of the alleged mistreatment of American college student Otto Warmbier who died after being imprisoned in North Korea. Trump said Kim “tells me he didn’t know about it, and I will take him at his word.”