As of February 28, the second summit between American President Donald Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un has come to a close. After two days of meetings, the leaders cancelled a signing ceremony, after not being able to make a deal. It is unclear what would have been signed, but dialogue between the U.S. and the Hermit Kingdom continue.
A few days earlier, Kim Jong Un had arrived in Vietnam to great fanfare after a 70-hour train ride through China. This was Kim's first time in the country as the leader of North Korea, and one of his rare travels outside the Hermit Kingdom.
Unlike Trump and Kim's first summit in Singapore last June, Kim did not fly. No one is quite sure why Kim decided to take the 70-hour train ride, but it has been speculated that Kim did not want to borrow a plain from the Chinese government, as he had previously done last June. He did not want to show his reliance to China, which reportedly has a great deal of power over North Korea.
Later that evening, President Trump landed in Vietnam after a nearly 21-hour flight from D.C. This was President Trump's first time in Vietnam since November of 2017 when he attended the APEC summit.
The next morning, President Trump went to the Presidential Palace to meet with Vietnamese officials for a few meetings and a trade signing ceremony, where Vietnam agreed to buy from the U.S. company Boeing, showing an openness to trading more with the U.S. and other countries. These meetings were the opening to a busy day ahead for President Trump, marking the historic summit that was to begin later in the day.
After returning to his hotel for a few hours, President Trump headed to the first part of his two day summit with Kim Jong Un. The two leaders met for the second time in front of a wall of reporters. Trump and Kim were scheduled for a one on one meeting and a small dinner with close advisors that evening. Both the one on one and the dinner reportedly went very well, leading to hope for the next day of more detailed discussion.
As the second day of the summit rolled around, there was hope on both sides that a deal could be met, which would ultimately lead to a comprehensive deal being made in the future. The two leaders were set to begin the day with a one on one meeting, which went as planned. After that, the two took a bit of a detour from the schedule, going for a small walk and than having a small, informal meeting together with a few advisors.
President Trump and Kim Jong Un moved their discussion to a more formal, bilateral meeting after that. This was were the negotiations fell apart. It is unclear exactly what happened during the meeting, but both sides have accused the other of being unfair during the negotiations.
North Korea wanted some economic sanctions lifted in exchange for the destruction of some nuclear facilities. The United States wanted the destruction of other, more major facilities. They were also unwilling to lift sanctions at this time. President Trump eventual walked away from the discussions, deciding to make no deal rather than signing a bad deal, which Kim Jong Un was pressuring him to do.
In a rare show of unity, this move was praised by lawmakers from both parties.
After Trump walked away, a second lunch meeting as well as a signing ceremony were both cancelled, leaving the media to question what went wrong. But the relationship between the two leaders was good, even after the failure of the summit.
At a press conference after the summit, President Trump stated he was unwilling to sign a bad deal and felt it was better to walk away. The President also fell into some hot water for saying he took Kim at his word when Kim denied any wrongdoing in the death of Otto Warmbier, an American who was imprisoned in North Korea, only to be sent back to the United States in a coma, dying a few days later.
It is unclear where negotiations will go now. It has been reported that North Korea has started to rebuild facilities that were destroyed after Trump and Kim's first summit. Although this is not a great sign for what is to come, there is still hope on both sides that another summit can happen soon and foster a deal.
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