Trump: No current plans for third summit with North Korea
President Trump said he has not committed to a third summit between himself and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, while holding a press conference in Hanoi.
“We’ll see if it happens, it happens,” Trump said adding he has not committed to another.
Trump, speaking to reporters, said he secured a continued commitment from Kim during a Wednesday dinner to cease missile and nuclear testing.
“He’s not going to do testing of rockets and nuclear,” Trump said. “I trust him and I take him at his word. I hope that’s true.”
Despite that vow, Trump left Hanoi without a joint agreement with the North Korean dictator.
Trump: “Some really bad things happened” to Otto Warmbier
President Trump said he regretted what happened to US citizen Otto Warmbier, who was detained in North Korea for 17 months before being returned to the US in 2017, where he died days later.
Warmbier’s parents have accused the North Korean government of torturing their son and causing his death.
Trump said he discussed the issue with Kim Jong Un, and said “I don’t believe he would allow that to happen.”
“Those prisons are rough, rough places, and bad things happen,” he added. “I don’t believe he knew about it, he felt badly about it, he felt very badly.”
He added that while Kim “knew the case very well,” he knew about it “later.”
“Some really bad things happened to Otto,” Trump said.
“(Kim) tells me he didn’t know about it and I will take him at his word.”
Trump says his relationship with Kim is “very warm”
President Trump referred to his relationship with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un as “very warm” and insisted that the meeting didn’t end contentiously but with “a very friendly walk.”
“This wasn’t a walk away like you get up and walk out,” Trump told reporters of the end of the summit.
“The relationship was very warm and when we walked away it was a very friendly walk,” Trump said.
Trump also took digs at former presidents for not taking action on North Korea saying, “this should have been solved during many presidential runs — and people talked about it. They never did anything.”
Trump says he will call South Korea’s Moon
Responding to a question about whether South Korean President Moon Jae-in had hit a “glass ceiling” when it came to pursuing peace on the Korean Peninsula, President Trump said he would speak to the South Korean leader Thursday.
“We’ll be calling President Moon very soon, as soon as I get on the plane,” Trump said. “He’s been working very hard, he’d love to see a deal.”
He added that he would also be speaking to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Trump slams Democrats for scheduling Cohen to testify during his summit with Kim
President Trump slammed Democrats for scheduling the Michael Cohen hearing during his summit with North Korea as a “terrible thing.”
“I think having a fake hearing like that and having it in the middle of this very important summit was really a terrible thing,” Trump said. “Having it during this very important summit is sort of incredible.”
Trump says Cohen testimony was “pretty shameful”
President Trump said he watched some of former fixer Michael Cohen’s testimony Wednesday on Capitol Hill and called it “pretty shameful.”
Trump said while Cohen “lied a lot,” he was “impressed” by one thing: “He said no collusion with the Russian hoax.”
“I said, ‘I wonder why he didn’t lie about that too like he lied about everything else,'” he said.
Trump continued: “He said no collusion and I was you know a little impressed by that frankly. He could have gone all out. He only went about 95% instead of 100 %.”
Trump: “I want to take off the sanctions so badly”
After he acknowledged that the summit in Hanoi ended with no deal due to sanctions, President Trump said he wanted to see the economic restrictions lifted on North Korean in future.
“I want to take off the sanctions so badly, because that country has got so much potential to grow,” Trump said.
He has repeatedly highlighted North Korea’s economic potential during the summit in Hanoi and meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The country is currently subject to tough international sanctions, severely limiting its growth and exports.
Trump: “It was about sanctions”
Responding to a question about whether it was North Korea’s desire to see the back of sanctions which derailed talks, Trump said it was.
“Basically they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, and we couldn’t do that,” he said.
“We haven’t given up anything,” Trump added, saying he looked forward to future talks with North Korea. “They have tremendous potential, unbelievable.”
“He wants to denuke, he just wants to do areas that are less important than what we want,” Trump said of Kim.
He added that ultimately the breakdown of the summit “was about sanctions.”
Trump said Kim promised he would not do future nuclear or rocket testing.
“He has a certain vision and it’s not exactly our vision, but it’s a lot closer than it was a year ago and I think eventually we’ll get there,” Trump said of the North Korean leader. “For this particular visit we decided that we had to walk.”
Trump acknowledged that “there is a gap” between the two sides and said Kim appeared willing to denuclearize certain portions of his country “that are less important than we want.”
Trump: “Sometimes you have to walk”
President Trump said he had a “really productive time” during discussions with North Korean leader Kim.
But he added it “wasn’t a thing to be signing anything” today.
“He’s quite a guy, quite a character,” Trump said of Kim. “We had some options but at this time we decided not to do any of the options.”
“Sometimes you have to walk,” the President added. “This was just one of those times.”
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