Failed talks: North Korea, US offer duelling versions
HANOI: North Korea on Friday promised further negotiations with the US despite a spectacular failure to strike a nuclear deal at their Hanoi summit, with both sides keeping the door of diplomacy open.
The high-stakes second meeting between the North’s leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump broke up in disarray Thursday, without even a jointstatement. In the aftermath, each sought to blame the other’s intransigence for the deadlock.
Trump insisted Pyongyang wanted all sanctions imposed on it over its banned weapons programmes lifted, and this was a bridge too far. But in a rare latenight press briefing, the North Korean foreign minister said Pyongyang had only wanted some of the measures eased, and that its proposal to close “all the nuclear production facilities” at its Yongbyon complex was its best and final offer.
Despite the stalemate, the North’s official KCNA news agency reported on Friday that the two leaders had a“constructive and candid exchange .” Despite “inevitable hardships and difficulties” on the way to forging a new relationship, KN CA described the Hanoi summit as“successful” and said Kim had promised Trump another encounter. An unusually downcast Trump told reporters on Thursday that he would “rather doit right than do it fast” adding: “Sometimes you have to walk and this was just one of those times.”
STUDENT’S FAMILY HITS OUT AT NORTH KOREA
The parents of Otto Warmbier blasted Kim’ s“evil regime” after Trump said he believed the leader’ s claims not to have known how their son was treated. “Kim and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son ,” Fred and Cindy Warmbier said.