President Trump on Friday celebrated what he called “substantive negotiations” with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un after returning from his summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, without an agreement on further denuclearization or sanctions relief.
{mosads}In a tweet, the president asserted that the U.S. relationship with North Korea and Kim Jong Un remains “very good” despite differing reports from the two countries on what stalled negotiations at this week’s summit.
“Great to be back from Vietnam, an amazing place. We had very substantive negotiations with Kim Jong Un – we know what they want and they know what we must have,” the president wrote. “Relationship very good, let’s see what happens!”
Trump told reporters following the summit that the U.S. was not willing to fully lift sanction on North Korea in exchange for a partial denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, stating that “[s]ometimes you have to walk, and this was just one of those times.”
“They were willing to denuke a large portion of the areas we wanted, but we couldn’t give up all of the sanctions for that,” Trump added.
A North Korean official disputed that characterization of the country’s position adding that Kim “may have lost the will” to engage in future negotiations.
“This proposal was the biggest denuclearization measure we could take at the present stage in relations to [the] current level of confidence between the DPRK and the United States,” North Korea’s foreign minister said.