Trump-Kim summit: US president blames failure of talks on North Korea's demand for sanctions to be dropped
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un have cut short their talks in Hanoi, Vietnam and skipped a scheduled lunch event.
The White House confirmed the summit had ended with “no agreement reached” as the leaders headed back to their respective hotels.
The US president talks broke down over North Korea’s demands on US-led sanctions.
“Basically, they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, but we couldn’t do that,” he told reporters. “Sometimes you have to walk.”
Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, said negotiations would continue at a future date.
Several Democrats came out acknowledging Mr Trump’s decision to walk away without a deal was the right move in this situation. Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff said walking away with no deal was better than agreeing to a bad deal, before adding that it was “the result of a poorly planned strategy.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer echoed similar statements, citing his concerns about the likelihood of a bad deal forming out of the summit.
“A deal that fell short of complete denuclearization would have only made North Korea stronger & the world less safe,” Mr Schumer said.
After the summit, Mr Trump also defended Mr Kim over the tragic death of American college student Otto Warmbier, who was jailed in North Korea in December 2015 for attempting to steal propaganda material during an organised tour.The president said he does not believe the autocratic leader was aware of Mr Warmbier’s condition in the North Korean hard labour prison camp.
"He tells me he didn't know about it, and I will take him at his word,” Mr Trump said.
After two years of imprisonment, North Korean authorities returned Mr Warbier to the US in a coma in July 2017. A few days later, the 22-year-old died in his hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Ohio Senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman criticised the American president’s defense of Mr Kim.
“I’m very concerned that the President didn’t seem to be all that concerned about the murder of Otto Warmbier from Cincinnati,” Mr Brown told reporters on Thursday. “I don’t know how he says he likes the dictator of NK so much.”
Mr Portman insists that Mr Trump and the American people must remember Mr Warmbier and that “we should never let North Korea off the hook for what they did to him."
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From the White House pool report - the reporters who travel with the president wherever he goes - there is a little more clarification on Mr Kim's answer to a question from a Western reporter - believed to be his first.
Q: 'Are you confident?'
Mr Kim: "Well, it’s too early to tell, but I wouldn’t say that I’m pessimistic. From what I feel right now, I do have a feeling that good results will come out."
Trump's press conference scheduled to take place in a little under five hours from now:
From reporter William Gallo of Voice of America, as the two parties sit down to talk, Mr Trump says “no matter what happens we're going to really have a deal that's very good for Chairman Kim".
He adds: “Doesn't mean we're doing it in one day or two days, but it's all leading toward a very big success."
Via NBC News: Reporter: "Chairman Kim, are you willing to denuclearise?"
Mr Kim (through translator): "If I'm not willing to do that I wouldn't be here right now."
From CNN:
President Trump and North Korean leader Kim will be sitting down shortly for a working lunch at the Metropole Hotel's Le Club restaurant.
Here's what they'll be eating:
Starter: Apple foie gras jelly
Main course: Snow fish
Dessert: Banoffee pie
With candied ginseng and ginseng tea
Right now, reading through social media, there's a fair degree of optimism the two leaders could pull something off:
Nguyen Thi Lien who owns the now famous noodle restaurant where Barack Obama and Anthony Bourdain enjoyed a meal in 2016, told CNN she would like to invite Mr Trump and Mr Kim to eat there
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