Trump-Kim summit: US president blames failure of talks on North Korea's demand for sanctions to be dropped
Follow the latest updates on the historic meeting
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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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The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament has expressed "regret" over the breakdown of negotiations between Trump and Kim, although it added it was "good news that relations between the US and North Korea don’t appear to be returning to the dangerous tensions of 2017".
General secretary Kate Hudson added: “There is clearly the potential for further talks. Though it remains to be seen how the US president who has spent the last year weakening and tearing up crucial arms control treaties can make diplomacy work on the Korean peninsula."
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo says nuclear negotiations with North Korea will resume quickly following the collapse of Donald Trump’s summit with Kim Jong-un.
Mr Pompeo told reporters aboard his plane Thursday that his team will get back to work “tomorrow” although no new meetings have yet been scheduled.
He said progress was made between Mr Trump and Mr Kim at their talks in Hanoi but not enough to warrant signing any kind of agreement.
The White House had scheduled a signing ceremony but abruptly cancelled it along with a lunch when it became clear an agreement could not be reached.
Mr Pompeo spoke as he flew from Vietnam to Manila, for talks with senior Philippines officials.
One of the takeaways from Donald Trump's press conference in Hanoi this morning - the president does not believe Kim Jong-un was aware of the events that led to US student Otto Warmbier suffering catastrophic brain damage while detained in North Korea:
Here is the table at the Metropole Hotel in Hanoi where Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un had been due to take part in a working lunch on Thursday.
That meeting has now of course been cancelled after talks broke down over North Korean demands on US sanctions and the summit was ended early.
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo left Hanoi swiftly after the breakdown in talks between American and North Korean representatives and has since travelled to Manila, where he is meeting with the Philippines' controversial Rodrigo Duterte
Experts have been having their say after the summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un in Hanoi was cut short without reaching an agreement.
Daniel Russel, vice president of Asia Society Policy Institute and former foreign affairs aide to Barack Obama, said given that “the hard diplomatic work of narrowing differences and exploring options had simply not been done,” it was unsurprising that the two leaders could not close the deal.
“At this point it will be no easy matter to persuade North Korea to move quickly, to deal with US negotiators rather than with Trump directly, or to accept that its entire nuclear and missile programme must be on the table.”
However, many critics had feared that driven by a desire to claim a victory, Mr Trump might make too many concessions – and analysts have generally considered his decision to walk away from a deal was the right one.
Ohio Senator Rob Portman released a statement today regarding President Donald Trump's comments on Otto Warmbier and his death.
Per Washington Post reporter Erica Werner, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Donald Trump was right to walk away from the summit without a deal.
Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy said in a tweet that although he wished Donald Trump stood up against Kim "more forcefully," he believes walking away without a deal is better than making a bad one.
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