UPDATE: No agreement was reached at the Hanoi Nuclear Summit when North Korea's Kim Jong Un made demands that sanctions on his country be lifted. In the light of those demands, President Donald Trump "walked."
Trump remarked that there were times one had to walk and declared, "this was one of those times."
At this unexpected turnout, no plans had been made for a third summit, but the United States President remained optimistic of a "good outcome" eventually.
The Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, remarked during his flight back home that he hoped that officials involved at both ends would be able to get back to its talks to come at an agreement eventually.
At this unexpected turnout of events, the preparations for the signing of a joint agreement went down the drain, including the luncheon which had been planned.
The meeting had started to go the way it was hoped to, with the North Korean leader offering to dismantle Yongbyon in its entirety. However, he dropped the bomb when he asked to have all sanctions on his country scrapped altogether.
It was something which was totally out of the question for the United States to offer. Besides, Kim had only put Yongbyon on the table, excluding all other nuclear facilities and apparatus. The North Korean delegation including Kim was even surprised when Trump talked about the existence of another facility apart from Yongbyon.
As for South Korea, leader Moon Jae-In had expressed that the summit's outcome was "regrettable" but stressed that it was still "meaningful progress."
China hopes for continued talks on the matter, with spokesman Lu Kang of the Foreign Ministry pointing out that nuclear disarmament of North Korea is something that needed to be worked on as it would not be made successful overnight.
Some mention of Otto Warmbier was also made at the last talks. It is remembered that Warmbier was the student who had been detained in North Korea and sentenced to hard labor for 15 years after taking a poster at a hotel. Warmbier had died of extensive injuries after he was released.
Trump had brought up the subject of the student at the summit and expressed that he believed his counterpart at the summit when the latter told him he knew nothing about that.
The abrupt ending of the Hanoi nuclear summit made it impossible, too, to achieve the goal of finally ending the Korean War with a political declaration.
A recent update on the Hanoi Nuclear Summit revealed that a joint agreement would be signed after Thursday's talks between the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the United States President Donald Trump.
No specifics have been offered regarding the said update. But officials from both the United States and North Korea have been working at a draft for the aforementioned agreement even before the summit commenced.
The specific conditions of the draft agreement about North Korea's nuclear weapons as well as the offer the United States may have in return have not been forthcoming. The ceremony will take place after the meetings.
Realistically, experts do not have high expectations for a move toward total denuclearization by North Korea. However, some welcome steps forward may come in the form of agreements to share information on Kim's present nuclear program and to the dismantling of the nuclear reactor in Yongbyon. These may open the table for the easing of sanctions on North Korea.
At Hanoi's Hotel Metropole for Thursday's round of talks, U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un took a break from negotiations after a 30-minute session. The two were seen strolling around the venue's courtyard after being inside for the first session which had been expected to last 45 minutes.
Expectations remain high about the outcome of the Hanoi summit, after the first round of talks in Singapore last June 2018 seemed to have a brought only a lot of pageantry mainly from President Trump, but not very much in terms of realistic changes in the issue of North Korea's nuclear weapons or of plans on dismantling those.
North Korea's expectations of a lowering of economic sanctions were also unmet.
About all the first summit achieved was a breaking of tensions between the two nations as well as leaders, although how far that goes is something to be discovered. But whether that was enough to move forward this present round of talks also remains to be seen.
Meantime, nothing much has been presently heard about the North Koreans, who have as much at stake on this event. The North Korean state paper was said to have dedicated four pages of its six to share the news of their leader Kim Jong Un's trip to Hanoi. The people of North Korea were said to have been very "excited" and emotional about their Chairman's trip.
It is noteworthy that with the emotions directed by North Koreans toward their leader, there has been no mention of human rights concerns.
The pressure to deliver is on the two heads of state. For his part, President Trump is scheduled for a news conference at 8:50 GMT, when it is expected he can give the waiting world answers to these pressing issues.
