- U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un concluded their two-day nuclear summit in Hanoi, Vietnam with no deal. “Sometimes you have to walk,” Trump said at a news conference, following the summit.
- According to President Trump, the summit collapsed because Kim demanded an end to all sanctions on North Korea. “They were willing to de-nuke a large portion of the areas that we wanted, but we couldn’t give up all of the sanctions for that,” Trump said.
- North Korea, for its part, disputed Trump’s version of events in a rare, middle-of-the-night news conference. “What we proposed was not the removal of all sanctions but the partial removal,” Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said through an interpreter in Hanoi.
- A U.S. State Department official later clarified North Korea’s position. Pyongyang was seeking the lifting of post-2016 sanctions which impede the civilian economy, not those on armaments, imposed after their first nuclear test in 2006.
- Vietnam, however, came out a clear winner. The socialist country was touted as a model by President Trump for North Korea to aspire. Hanoi can also bolster their image as that of a neutral peacekeeper.
Trump, Kim Leave Hanoi Summit with No Deal
