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The United States-North Korea nuclear summit in Hanoi ended abruptly without a deal yesterday, with President Donald Trump saying he had decided to “walk” in the face of Kim Jong Un’s demands to drop sanctions.
The much-anticipated second meeting between the two leaders was supposed to build on their historic first summit in Singapore, but they failed to sign a joint statement as initially scheduled and the talks ended in deadlock.
“Sometimes you have to walk and this was just one of those times,” an unusually downbeat Trump told reporters. “Basically they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety and we couldn’t do that,” Trump said before leaving Vietnam aboard Air Force One to head back to Washington.
But Trump insisted he was “optimistic that the progress we made” before and during the summit left them “in position to have a really good outcome” in the future.
“I’d much rather do it right than do it fast,” he added. He noted Kim had vowed not to resume nuclear or ballistic missile testing, something he previously identified as a yardstick for success and reiterated their “close relationship”.
“We just like each other… there’s a warmth that we have and I hope that stays, I think it will,” he said.
The outcome in Hanoi fell far short of the pre-meeting expectations and hopes, after critics said their initial historic meeting in Singapore was more style over substance.
