Trump Demanded Kim Hand Over Nuclear Weapons, Reuters Reports
President Trump demanded North Korea hand over all its nuclear weapons at Hanoi summit
(Bloomberg) -- U.S. President Donald Trump gave North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a list of demands that included a call for handing over nuclear weapons and bomb fuel to the U.S. in their talks in Hanoi last month, Reuters reported, citing the document.
Trump handed Kim the piece of paper stating the U.S. position at their meeting in Hanoi’s Metropole Hotel on Feb. 28, according to the news agency. This was the first time that Trump had explicitly defined directly to Kim what he meant by denuclearization, Reuters reported, citing an unidentified person familiar with the discussions.
The document may help explain why the summit collapsed without a complete account, Reuters said.
Trump abruptly ended his second summit with Kim after the president said the North Korean leader had asked for all U.S. sanctions to be lifted in exchange for the dismantling of the country’s main nuclear facility. Each side has blamed the other, with the U.S. saying North Korea demanded too much sanctions relief and Pyongyang faulting Washington for rejecting its promises to reduce its nuclear program.
Trump told reporters Friday he has a good relationship with Kim and didn’t think additional sanctions on North Korea were needed.
“It doesn’t mean I don’t put them on later, I just didn’t think additional sanctions at this time were necessary,” he said. “They are suffering greatly.”
South Korean President Moon Jae-in will meet Trump on April 11 at the White House in a bid to get North Korean nuclear talks back on track. Moon has come under fire at home from the opposition for accepting the North Korean leader’s disarmament pledges. He also faces pressure from across the peninsula, with the Kim regime withdrawing staff from a new joint liaison office last week and criticizing the south as “cowardly” for backing the U.S. stance against easing sanctions.
Moon will seek a fourth summit with the North Korean leader after meeting Trump, South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo reported, without saying where it got the information. Separately, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service is monitoring for a possible summit between Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to South Korean lawmakers who were briefed by the spy agency chief.
To contact the reporter on this story: Kyungji Cho in Seoul at kcho54@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew Monahan at amonahan@bloomberg.net, Linus Chua, Stanley James
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