Trump-Kim Summit Collapses

'Sometimes you have to walk'
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 28, 2019 3:33 AM CST
Updated Feb 28, 2019 6:41 AM CST
Trump-Kim Summit Collapses
President Trump speaks during a news conference after a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, in Hanoi.   (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

"Sometimes you have to walk, and this was just one of those times," President Trump said Thursday after his second summit with Kim Jong Un abruptly collapsed. A working lunch and the signing of a joint agreement were scrapped after talks fell apart on the summit's second day, causing confusion among the press corps, the New York Times reports. "It was about the sanctions basically," Trump said at a press conference. "They wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety and we couldn’t do that." Trump said Kim had been willing to dismantle some of the country's nuclear infrastructure in return for sanctions being lifted, but wanted to leave other parts of the program intact, the Guardian reports.

Trump said a third summit with Kim might not happen for "a long time," but defended him as "quite a guy and quite a character." Trump said Kim had promised him he would continue the suspension of nuclear and long-range missile testing. He said the US would continue not taking part in joint military exercises with South Korea, which he was already opposed to because of the "unfair" cost to the US military. Trump, who departed Vietnam on Air Force One soon after the talks collapsed, said he still has a "great relationship" with South Korea's President Moon Jae-in, the BBC reports. Earlier Thursday, Kim surprised observers by answering a reporter's question, Time reports. The North Korean leader, asked if he felt confident about the talks, said he had a "feeling that good results will come out." (More North Korea stories.)

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