The talks collapsed unexpectedly amid a disagreement over economic sanctions.
By Philip Rucker , Philip Rucker White House Bureau Chief Email Bio Follow Simon Denyer and Simon Denyer Tokyo bureau chief covering Japan, North Korea and South Korea. Email Bio Follow David Nakamura David Nakamura Reporter covering the White House Email Bio Follow February 28 at 12:48 PM BREAKING NEWS: North Korea’s foreign minister said the country seeks only partial sanctions relief, contradicting Trump.
For Trump, the surprising turn of events amounted to a diplomatic failure. The president flew 20 hours to Vietnam with hopes of producing demonstrable progress toward North Korea’s denuclearization, building upon his first summit with Kim last summer in Singapore. Trump said Kim promised he would not conduct missile launches or test nuclear weapons. And he said Kim was willing to close the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Complex, the site of North Korea’s main nuclear reactor and its only source of plutonium to make bombs. But Trump said Kim did not offer to close other, covert facilities to enrich uranium.
It was clear that the two sides remain far apart on some key issues, including a fundamental one: what denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula would actually mean. It is still not clear what demands Kim would place on U.S. forces in South Korea and in the region for him to be willing to surrender his nuclear arsenal.
Analysts have said Trump’s strategy of engaging Kim was risky, given that U.S. intelligence officials have said the North Korean leader is unlikely to surrender an arsenal that is thought to include 20 to 65 nuclear warheads. [In a first for North Korea’s secretive leader, Kim Jong Un takes a question from a foreign journalist]
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