Trump walks out on Kim without nuclear deal
Discussions cut short as president blames North Korean demand for removal of sanctions
Ben Riley-smith
Nicola Smith
THE Hanoi summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un was abruptly cut short yesterday as the pair failed to reach an agreement over how North Korea should reduce or dismantle its nuclear programme.
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.
Mr 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 US president could not accept.
“Sometimes you just have to walk,” Mr 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.
Mr Trump said Kim had agreed not to restart nuclear and missile tests and the US would not restart military exercises in South Korea – a continuation of the status quo.
The failure to make progress in the talks disappointed US allies. A spokesman for South Korea’s president called it “regrettable”.
Mr 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,” Mr 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 pristine white tablecloth in anticipation of the
‘Basically they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety and we weren’t prepared to do that’
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 into Hanoi.
Confusion reigned for 20 minutes until a statement from Sarah Sanders, the White House spokesman.
Mr Trump and Kim had enjoyed “very good and constructive meetings” while discussing “various ways to advance denuclearisation 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 Mr Trump had greeted each other warmly as they reconvened their talks at 9am after dining the previous evening on grilled steak and pear kimchi.
Their discussion had been “great” and they had “developed something special”, said a buoyed Mr 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 anticipated “good results” from the day ahead.
The two leaders, their strong personal chemistry on show since the start of the summit, 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 denuclearise and was discussing “concrete steps” with Mr 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.
At a press conference, Mr Trump pinned the lack of an agreement on the North Korean leader’s stubborn insistence that all sanctions be lifted.
“Basically they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety and we weren’t prepared to do that,” he said. However,
‘We are certainly closer today than we were 36 hours ago. Real progress has been made’
that statement was contradicted in a highly unusual late night press conference by North Korea’s foreign minister.
Ri Yong-ho said Pyongyang had only requested “partial relief” on sanctions that “cripple the livelihood of our people” and offered to dismantle uranium enrichment facilities in return. The US, he said, had demanded more and hence the talks collapsed.
Choe Son-hui, the vice-foreign minister, added that the “US not accepting our proposal is missing an opportunity that comes once in a thousand years”.
Striking a pessimistic tone, she said Kim “may have lost the will” to negotiate with Mr Trump.
The US was at pains to stress that talks with North Korea had not collapsed. Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state who was present at the negotiating table, emphasised that “we are certainly closer today than we were 36 hours ago”.
He added: “Real progress was made.” Although warning that it could be a “long time” before another meeting, Mr Trump and Mr Pompeo insisted that they had parted on constructive terms with the North Koreans.
“We will continue to try to resolve a very difficult problem and everyone walked away with that spirit,” said Mr Pompeo. The president departed swiftly for the airport, while Kim remained in Vietnam for a state banquet on Friday.