US-North Korea Summit Cut Short in Vietnam With No Agreement

President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un concluded their second summit in Vietnam ended with no joint agreement after Kim insisted sanctions be lifted on his country. The highly touted and much publicized meeting thus ended in a stalemate.

Trump said that negotiators from the United States walked away from the meetings after North Korea demanded that most of the sanctions against their country be reduced before he would dismantle his country’s nuclear program.

LATEST: No agreement reached as U.S.-North Korea summit wraps up in Vietnam.
“Basically, they wanted the sanctions lifted immediately and we couldn’t do that,” says Pres. Trump. “We had to walk away from that.”

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Trump and Kim had been meeting in downtown Hanoi at the luxurious and historic Hotel Metropole. The president said Kim had offered to take some steps toward dismantling his nuclear arsenal but not enough to warrant ending the sanctions on the country which have caused it economic stress.

At a press conference at the conclusion of the meetings Trump announced:

“You always have to be prepared to walk. I could have 100 percent signed something today. We actually had papers ready to be signed, but it was not appropriate. I would rather do it right. I would rather do it right than fast.”

According to U.S. negotiators North Korea has agreed to not carry out any further nuclear or missile tests as the two countries continue negotiations into the future..

Trump had a short one-on-one meeting with Kim on Wednesday followed by an hour and a half-long dinner with their top aides, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.

Trump said the two days of meetings were “productive” and that he still felt a strong personal rapport with the North Korean leader.

Yesterday we reported that U.S. negotiators admitted they would no longer demand that North Korea share the complete details of its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile arsenals as discussions between the two countries continued. 

The concession was an admission by Trump that he would not be able to accomplish the chief goal of the summit, which is denuclearization.

A major agreement reached in Hanoi may  have pushed aside embarrassing headlines about Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen testifying the President is a racist conman who has committed criminal acts while president.

Leo Vidal

I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.