Trump-Kim summit ends with no agreement

The second summit between the United States (US) president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ended earlier than planned on Thursday in Hanoi, Vietnam after both sides failed to come to a deal and even cancelled plans to hold a pre-arranged joint-signing ceremony.

Both sides had scheduled a joint-signing ceremony at 2.05pm local time but cancelled it in the last minute. A working lunch scheduled after the leaders’ morning talks was also removed from the schedule.

Mr Trump said in a subsequent press conference he ‘could have 100% signed something today’, but he added that he planned to ‘do it right, rather than do it fast’.

‘We had some options, and at this time we decided not to do any of the options,’ the president said.

Speaking at the press conference, US’ secretary of state Mike Pompeo commented: ‘Unfortunately, we didn't get all the way. We didn't get to something that ultimately made sense for the US...We asked him (Kim) to do more, he wasn’t prepared to do that.’

According to White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, the two leaders had ‘very good constructive meetings in Hanoi’.

‘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,’ Ms Sanders said.

No signs of disagreements prior to the talks

Prior to Mr Trump’s press conference, Mr Trump and Mr Kim appeared optimistic over the nuclear talks. On Wednesday morning Mr Trump even sent out a Tweet praising North Korea’s “AWESOME” potential as a country and called Mr Kim his “friend”.

When the leaders spoke to the media earlier on Thursday, Mr Trump said both parties had ‘a good discussion last night at dinner’ and pre-dinner was ‘very good’. He even said that North Korea is going to be an ‘economic powerhouse’.

Mr Kim meanwhile, said a lot of effort have been made so far, adding that he wanted to do his best ‘to bring a good result ultimately (for) today’.

In the first summit in Singapore in June where the leaders first met to discuss on a denuclearization deal, the two had signed a vague document pledging to work on a complete ‘denuclearization of the Korean peninsula’. The earlier summit drew criticism from observers as no concrete developments on the denuclearization was made.

Mr Trump has confirmed that all current sanctions on Pyongyang will remain.