N Korea Disputes Trump’s Account of Vietnam Summit Collapse
Mere hours after both nations had seemed hopeful of a deal, talks between two leaders’ disintegrated.
advertisement
North Korea is disputing President Donald Trump's account of why the summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un collapsed, insisting the North demanded only partial sanctions relief in exchange for shutting down its main nuclear complex.
Trump, who was on his way back to Washington on Thursday, 28 February, said before leaving Hanoi that the talks broke down because North Korea's leader insisted that all the punishing sanctions the US has imposed on Pyongyang be lifted without the North committing to eliminate its nuclear arsenal.
Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho commented on the talks during an abruptly scheduled middle-of-the-night news conference.
Earlier on Thursday in Hanoi, Trump had told reporters the North had demanded a full removal of sanctions in exchange for shutting the Yongbyon nuclear facility.
‘Opportunity Lost’
Ri said the North was also ready to offer in writing a permanent halt of the country's nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests and that Washington wasted an opportunity that "may not come again."
He said the North's position wouldn't change even if the United States offers to resume another round of dialogue
Asked about the North Koreans' claim that they only demanded partial sanctions in exchange for shutting down its main nuclear facility, White House press Secretary Sarah Sanders said: "I'll refer you back to the president and Secretary Pompeo's remarks at the press conference" in Hanoi.
Talks Break Down Hours After Deal “Seemed Hopeful”
The disintegration of talks came after Trump and Kim had appeared to be ready to inch toward normalizing relations between their still technically warring nations and as the American leader dampened expectations that their negotiations would yield an agreement by North Korea to take concrete steps toward ending a nuclear program that Pyongyang likely sees as its strongest security guarantee.
In something of a role reversal, Trump had deliberately ratcheted down some of the pressure on North Korea, abandoning his fiery rhetoric and declaring that he wanted the "right deal" over a rushed agreement.
The breakdown denied Trump a much-needed triumph amid growing domestic turmoil back home, including congressional testimony this week by his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who called Trump a "racist" and "con man" and claimed prior knowledge that WikiLeaks would release emails that would damage Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2016.
Trump insisted his relations with Kim remained warm, but he did not commit to having a third summit with the North Korean leader, saying a possible next meeting "may not be for a long time."
"Basically, they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, and we couldn't do that," Trump told reporters.
Kim, he explained, appeared willing to close his country's main nuclear facility, the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center, if the sanctions were lifted. But that would leave him with missiles, warheads and weapon systems, Pompeo said. There are also suspected hidden nuclear fuel production sites around the country.
Trump Has An ‘Unpredictable Negotiating Style’
Longstanding US policy has insisted that US sanctions on North Korea would not be lifted until that country committed to, if not concluded, complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization.
Trump declined to restate that goal on Thursday, insisting he wanted flexibility in talks with Kim.
"I don't want to put myself in that position from the standpoint of negotiation," he said.
White House aides stressed that Trump stood strong.
The failure in Hanoi laid bare a risk in Trump's unpredictable negotiating style: Preferring one-on-one meetings with his foreign counterparts, his administration often eschews the staff-level work done in advance to assure a deal and envisions summits more as messaging opportunities than venues for hard line negotiation.
There was disappointment and alarm in South Korea, whose liberal leader has been a leading orchestrator of the nuclear diplomacy and who needs a breakthrough to restart lucrative engagement projects with the impoverished North. Yonhap news agency said that the clock on the Korean Peninsula's security situation has "turned back to zero" and diplomacy is now "at a crossroads."
The two leaders had seemed to find a point of agreement when Kim, who fielded questions from American journalists for the first time, was asked if the US may open a liaison office in North Korea. Trump declared it "not a bad idea," and Kim called it "welcomable." Such an office would mark the first US presence in North Korea and a significant grant to a country that has long been deliberately starved of international recognition.
Despite No Deal, Summit Step Towards International Recognition For N Korea
There had long been skepticism that Kim would be willing to give away the weapons his nation had spent decades developing and Pyongyang felt ensured its survival. But even after the summit ended, Trump praised Kim's commitment to continue a moratorium on missile testing.
If the first Trump-Kim summit in Singapore last year gave the reclusive nation's leader entree onto the international stage, the second appeared to grant him the legitimacy his family has long desired.
Kim, for the first time, affably parried with the international press without having to account for his government's long history of oppression. He secured Trump's support for the opening of a liaison office in Pyongyang, without offering any concessions of his own.
Even without an agreement, Trump's backing for the step toward normalization provided the sort of recognition the international community has long denied Kim's government.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)