Donald Trump has failed to secure a deal with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi as the leaders cut short a summit designed to revive the path to denuclearisation they agreed in Singapore.
At a press conference following his talks with the North Korean dictator, Mr Trump on Thursday said the leaders had made progress since they met in Singapore in June last year. But he said the US could not accept a North Korean demand that it lift all sanctions at this point.
“They wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety and we couldn’t do it,” Mr Trump said. “He had a certain vision, and it is not exactly our vision. But it is a lot closer than it was a year ago, and eventually I think we will get there, but for this particular visit we decided that we had to walk.”
The outcome was a disappointment for the White House, which had told reporters that Mr Trump and Mr Kim would hold a signing ceremony on Thursday to announce a deal. The ceremony and a lunch for the leaders were cancelled after the talks hit turbulence over the question of sanctions.
Dennis Wilder, the top Asia adviser to George W Bush during the six-party denuclearisation talks, said it was “unprecedented . . . to have a presidential summit cut short in this manner”.
“Asians are sticklers for protocol, and cancelling the lunch almost certainly came from the US side. This is the danger with top-down rather than bottom-up diplomacy,” Mr Wilder said, referring to the fact that Mr Trump was trying to use his unusual bond with Mr Kim to manage the process himself.
For a president reluctant to admit failure, Mr Trump was quite frank about the reasons for the deal’s collapse. He said North Korea had agreed to destroy Yongbyon, its main nuclear complex, which houses plutonium and uranium-enrichment facilities to produce fissile material for weapons.
But Mr Kim was unwilling to destroy other facilities, including a clandestine uranium-enrichment complex that the US wanted dismantled before easing the crippling UN sanctions on Pyongyang.
Mr Trump said that Yongbyon, “while very big . . . wasn’t big enough” to justify removing sanctions. He added that the US had uncovered other things, including a clandestine uranium-enrichment facility that North Korea has never publicly acknowledged, which it would need to tackle to get relief.
“I think they were surprised that we knew,” Mr Trump said.
North Korea later pushed back at the explanation provided by Mr Trump. According to Reuters, Ri Yong Ho, the country’s foreign minister, told reporters that North Korea had offered to destroy all its plutonium and uranium facilities — not just Yongbyon — and that Mr Kim had only asked for a partial, not full, easing of sanctions in return.
Victor Cha, a North Korea expert who negotiated with Pyongyang during the Bush administration, said the outcome in Hanoi was a big setback for efforts to denuclearise the Korean peninsula.
“This summit was a failure. It’s better to have no deal rather than a bad deal but never should have been in this position. Now there is no clear path forward.,” said Mr Cha, who was tapped by Mr Trump to serve as ambassador to South Korea before he was cast aside for privately voicing concerns about signs that the administration was gearing up for a military strike on North Korea in 2017.
Kim Jae-chun, a professor at Sogang University in South Korea, said the result was a “total failure” since the leaders had not agreed “even a small deal” that had been expected.
“Although Trump said they will continue to talk, I think the denuclearisation talks will lose momentum and the issue is likely to be put on the back burner, given Trump’s domestic political problems,” said Mr Kim. “The geopolitical situation surrounding the Korean peninsula will likely to go back to square one with a lot of uncertainties.”
Yet while some experts described the summit as a failure, John Kirby, a former Obama-era spokesman for the Pentagon and state department, told CNN that Mr Trump should be given some credit for being willing to walk away from a bad deal. Ahead of Hanoi, critics worried that Mr Trump might be willing to ease sanctions just so that he could announce an agreement with North Korea.
The unexpected end to the summit surprised many analysts. Mr Trump had boasted about how his bond with Mr Kim would help create a deal in the run-up to the summit. The two leaders also appeared to show cautious optimism earlier on Thursday in remarks they made in front of reporters.
Asked if he was willing to give up his nuclear weapons, Mr Kim said: “If I’m not willing to do that, I won’t be here.” That prompted Mr Trump to quip: “That might be the best answer you’ve ever heard.”
Mr Trump said that while the negotiations had not produced an agreement, the language between the leaders “was good all throughout” their two days in Hanoi.
At his press conference, Mr Trump said that although he had not committed to holding another summit, he still believed the leaders would find a way to bridge their divisions. He added that Mr Kim had said he would not again start testing missiles or nuclear weapons.
While many experts criticise Mr Trump over his approach to foreign affairs, some privately concede that despite his unorthodox approach, he has helped lower tensions on the Korean peninsula.
The Blue House in Seoul said Mr Trump expressed regret about the outcome in a call with President Moon Jae-in, but expressed his strong commitment to resolve the issue through continued talks with North Korea. Mr Trump asked Mr Moon to play an active role as a mediator and to talk to Mr Kim about the summit and let him know what was discussed between the two Korean leaders.
Asked if it was his decision to walk away from the talks, Mr Trump said: “I don’t want to say that it was my decision . . . I want to keep the relationship” with Mr Kim.
Earlier on Thursday, Mr Trump defended the approach that the two leaders had taken since Singapore, pushing back against critics who said that US negotiators had failed to make any real progress.
“I’ve been saying very much from the beginning that speed is not that important to me,” Mr Trump said. “I very much appreciate no testing of nuclear rockets, missiles . . . We just want to do the right deal.”
Mr Trump is the first sitting US president to meet a North Korean leader. Some critics have slammed him for using laudatory language about a man who orders the death of officials, imprisons hundreds of thousands in gulags and been accused of ordering the killing of his uncle and half-brother. But Mr Trump has insisted that the leaders must create trust for there to be any chance of a deal.
