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A photo of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump during their Hanoi summit published by the Korean Central News Agency on Mar. 1. (KCNA)
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Article takes different tone from full-scale rebuttal of Trump’s press conference remarks
“[The two leaders] agreed to [. . .] continue productive dialogues for settling the issues discussed at the Hanoi summit.” This was the conclusion in a Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) report published on Mar. 1, one day after the second North Korea-US summit in Hanoi on Feb. 27–28 concluded without a joint statement. The article stated that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump had “agreed to keep in close touch with each other for [. . .] the epochal development of the DPRK-US relations in the future.” The message was different in tone from the North’s firm rebuttal of Trump’s remarks claiming the agreement had failed because of North Korea’s demands for a removal of all sanctions. North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho in an emergency press conference at 12:15 am on Mar. 1 to rebuke these claims and explain that the North had asked only for a low-level loosening of sanctions that directly affected the civilian economy. “Supreme Leader of the Party, state and army Kim Jong Un met again with USA President Donald J. Trump at Metropole Hotel in Hanoi [the summit venue] at 9 am Hanoi Time and then had one-on-one talks before having extended talks with their aides attending,” the KCNA report said. In terms of the summit’s content, the report said the two leaders “highly appreciated [. . .] that remarkable progress has been made in the historic course of implementing the Singapore joint statement [from June 2018].” “They had a constructive and candid exchange of their opinions over the practical issues arising in opening up a new era of the improvement of the DPRK-US relations on the basis of the progress,” the report continued. In terms of the summit’s key issue of denuclearization, the article said the two leaders had “shared the common understanding that the efforts made by the two sides and proactive measures taken by them to [. . .] completely denuclearize [the Korean Peninsula] were of great significance in building mutual trust and making a fundamental turn in the decades-long bilateral relations characterized by mistrust and antagonism. It went on to say the leaders had “listened to each other's views on the issues to be resolved without fail at the present phase [. . .] and had an in-depth discussion of the ways” to achieve the goals named in the Singapore Joint Statement, namely the establishment of new relations, the creation of a peace regime and complete denuclearization. According to the KCNA report, the two leaders “expressed the conviction that though [. . .] there exist inevitable hardships and difficulties on the road to writing a new history of the DPRK-US relationship, they could create a significant advance in the DPRK-US relations [. . .] with wisdom and patience.” At the same time, it said they had “appreciated that the second meeting in Hanoi offered an important occasion for [. . .] putting the relations between the two countries on a new stage.” The report also said Kim had “expressed his thanks to Trump for making positive efforts for the successful meeting and talks while making a long journey and said goodbye, promising the next meeting.” By Noh Ji-won, staff reporter Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
