US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un yesterday abruptly cut short their second summit without reaching an agreement, a stunning collapse of talks that caused both leaders to leave their Vietnam meeting early and cancel a planned signing ceremony.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the leaders had a “very good and constructive meeting,” and discussed ways to advance denuclearization and economic driven concepts.”
She said their teams looked forward to meeting “in the future,” but offered no specific time frame.
Photo: Reuters
Both leaders motorcades roared away from the downtown Hanoi summit site within minutes of each other after both a lunch and the signing ceremony were scuttled.
At Trump’s end-of-summit news conference, which was moved up, he told reporters: “Sometimes you have to walk.”
He said he had not committed to a third summit with Kim, but “we’ll see if it happens... It might be soon. It might not be for a long time.”
Trump said Kim asked the US to lift sanctions in exchange for certain steps toward denuclearization, but he was not willing to do that.
However, he said Kim assured him that he would continue to hold off on nuclear and missile tests.
The breakdown came just hours after Trump and Kim appeared to inch toward normalizing relations between their still technically-warring nations as the US leader tamped down expectations that their talks would yield an agreement by urging the reclusive nation to take concrete steps toward ending its nuclear program.
A summit that already bordered on the surreal took another surprising twist as the leaders adopted almost a role reversal during their face-to-face discussions in Hanoi.
As nervous global capitals looked on, Trump deliberately ratcheted down some of the pressure on Pyongyang, declaring he was in “no rush.”
“We just want to do the right deal,” he said.
Kim, when asked about denuclearization during an unprecedented question-and-answer session, said: “If I’m not willing to do that I won’t be here right now.”
The leaders seemed to find a point of agreement moments later when Kim was asked if the US could open a liaison office in North Korea. Trump declared it “not a bad idea,” while Kim called it “welcomable.”
Such an office would mark the first US presence in North Korea.
Over a series of meetings, the two men offered hopeful words at a summit focused on curbing Pyongyang’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, a problem that has bedeviled generations of leaders.
In a sharp break from his rhetoric a year ago, when he painted the threat from Pyongyang as so grave that “fire and fury” might need to be rained down on North Korea, Trump made clear that he was willing to accept a slower timetable for denuclearization.
He made little mention of denuclearization in his opening remarks, ramping down expectations further by saying: “I can’t speak necessarily for today but ... over a period of time I know we’re going to have a fantastic success with respect to Chairman Kim and North Korea.”
Kim fielded questions from Western journalists for likely the first time, with the reporters receiving some coaching from the president, who implored them: “And don’t raise your voice, please. This isn’t like dealing with Trump.”
The North Korean leader struck a largely hopeful note, saying: “I believe by intuition that good results will be produced.”
When a reporter asked Kim if they were discussing human rights, Trump interjected to say they were “discussing everything.”
Earlier, accompanied only by translators, the unlikely pair — a 72-year-old brash billionaire and a 35-year-old reclusive autocrat — displayed a familiarity with one another as they began the day’s negotiations.
After a 40-minute private meeting, the leaders went for a stroll in the hotel’s lush grounds, chatting as they walked by a swimming pool, before being joined by aides to continue talks.
“The relationship is just very strong and when you have a good relationship a lot of good things happen,” Trump said.
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