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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Trump is certainly not hanging about in Hanoi. About an hour after the end of his press conference, he has has been pictured boarding Air Force One, which will now fly back to Washington DC.
Here's our full story on the breakdown of the Hanoi talks, courtesy of my colleague Andrew Buncombe:
A North Korean delegation led by the country's vice minister Ri Kil-song has departed on a trip to China, the Korean Central News Agency has reported following the collapse of Kim and Trump's talks in Hanoi.
Trump said during his press conference that China had been a "big help" in the nuclear negotiations with Pyongyang, but said North Korea was calling its own shots.
South Korea's presidential office has said it it is "unfortunate" that Trump and Kim failed to reach an agreement during their summit in Vietnam, but adds it expects "active dialogue" to continue between Washington and Pyongyang.
The Blue House said it believes the US and North Korean leaders gaining understanding of each other during their "long and deep discussions" in Hanoi.
Trump raising the possibility of sanctions relief in exchange for nuclear disarmament shows that the nuclear between the countries have entered an "elevated level", Seoul suggests.
The collapse of the Trump-Kim summit is a setback for South Korean president Moon Jae-in, whose ambitions for inter-Korean engagement hinge on a nuclear breakthrough between Washington and Pyongyang.
While South Korea's presidential office issued diplomatic statement about the breakdown of the Trump-Kim talks, the country's media has reacted with more alarm.
Yonhap news agency said the clock on the security situation of the Korean Peninsula has been "turned back to zero" and that the push to resolve the nuclear standoff with the North was now "at a crossroads."
Financial News wondered whether Washington and Pyongyang would struggle to keep the momentum of dialogue alive and anticipated the nuclear negotiations becoming a prolonged battle.
Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe has wants to meet with Kim Jong-un next, after the failure of the North Korean leader's talks with Donald Trump.
He said he "fully" supported Trump's decision "not to make the easy choice".
"I am determined that I must meet Chairman Kim next," added Abe, who spoke with Trump this morning.
Abe said Trump had spoken to Kim about the issue of Japanese citizens abducted by North Koreans agents.
The Japanese prime minister has said he would not normalise diplomatic ties with Pyongyang or provide economic assistance until North Korea gave a full accounting of all those taken and return any abductees who are still alive.
Abe said last year he was open to meeting Kim and called for a “new start” in relations between Japan and North Korea.
The breakdown of talks between Trump and Kim has raised the security risk in the Korean peninsula, analysts have warned.
Donald Trump's declaration that Pyongyang has promised not to resume missile tests means little is "untenable" in the absence of a signed and enforceable deal, according to The Economist Intelligence Unit.
Analyst Anwita Basu said: “Once again, the US-North Korea relationship is thrown into deep uncertainty and this raises security risks in the Korean peninsula. Despite Mr Trump’s assurances that he and Kim Jong-un 'remain friends', no future plans for a third summit were discussed by the leaders.”
Shares have fallen in Europe and Asia, with South Korea's benchmark sinking 1.8 per cent, after talks between Trump and Kim Jon-un ended without an agreement.
Britain's FTSE 100 lost 0.7 per cent to 7,055 while the DAX in Germany fell 0.2 per cent to 11,468. The CAC 40 in France lost 0.1 per cent to 5,219.
Shares in New York also looked set for a downbeat start, with futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 both down 0.2 per cent.
Tangible progress towards ending North Korea's nuclear programme would likely have raised market confidence, particularly in South Korea.
China has called on the US and North Korea to "meet each other halfway" after the Trump-Kim talks broke down without an agreement.
Beijing's foreign ministry added the significant "turnaround" in relations in the Korean Peninsula over the past year remained a "hard-won result" worth cherishing.
During his post-summit press conference earlier, Trump called Chinese leader Xi Jinping "a highly-respected leader all over the world" who has been "very helpful" with North Korea.
Russia has said talks between the US appear to have failed because both countries proved unwilling to compromise and make concessions.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow was encouraged by the fact the negotiations did not break down completely but disappointed by the lack of "small steps" and flexibility that could have helped to achieve some progress.
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