The United States President Donald Trump has said on Thursday, he had cut short his nuclear summit with his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-Un because the two sides could not reach any deal and agree on sanctions.
During addressing the media at a press conference after his meeting with Kim in Hanoi, Vietnam, Trump said, “It wasn’t a good thing to be signing anything. We had some options, and at this time we decided not to do any of the options,” according to CNBC news reports.
The US president said he had not committed for the third summit with N Korean president, though he described their talks as productive and a highlighted his relationship with Kim, saying, “I think we’ll end up being very good friends.”
Though, at the end of the day, Trump said he “would not have been happy about” any agreement put on the table for Thursday’s talks.
Trump said, “Basically, they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety and we couldn’t do that. They were willing to de-nuke a large portion of the areas that we wanted, but we couldn’t give up all of the sanctions for that. So we continue to work and we’ll see, but we had to walk away from that particular suggestion. We had to walk away from that.”
Trump claimed that Kim has offered him with one weapons facility closure in exchange for the complete removal of the US sanctions on N Korea, but that Washington delegation team has “brought many points up that they were surprised that we knew” and thus demanded more actions from Kim and his regime.
Trump told reporters that he thought the gap between Pyongyang and Washington would be bridged “with time”. He confirmed all the current US sanctions on N Korea will remain in place and active.
While describing that their talks went productive, Trump said, “You always have to be prepared to walk,” adding, “We had papers ready to be signed, it just wasn’t appropriate.”
When asked Kim if he was ready to give up his nation’s nuclear weapons, he said, “If I’m not willing to do that, I won’t be here right now.”
In response, Trump said, “That might be the best answer you’ve ever heard.”
When asked if he was confident about reaching a deal with Trump, Kim said, “It’s too early to tell, but I wouldn’t say I’m pessimistic. For what I feel right now, I do have a feeling that good results will come out.”
He added, “We have so far made lots of efforts, and it’s time to show them.”
Also, Trump reiterated Pyongyang’s potential, if any deal can be reached during their talks, saying the isolated N Korea could be an “economic powerhouse”.
The White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said: “The two leaders discussed various ways to advance denuclearization and economic driven concepts. No agreement was reached at this time, but their respective teams look forward to meeting in the future.”