Trump-Kim talks break down over sanctions row

Th Vietnam summit between US President Donald Trump and the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un broke down on Thursday after the latter requested that all sanctions against it be lifted, according to Trump.

The two leaders had been expected to sign a joint agreement and announce progress towards the hermit kingdom's denuclearisation but Trump told reporters that the North Koreans had "wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety and we couldn't do that".

The President said that Kim had offered to dismantle the Yongbyon complex, the research and production facility at the heart of North Korea's nuclear programme, in exchange for the sanctions being dropped.

The offer was particularly disappointing as Stephen Biegun, the US State Department special representative for North Korea, said after pre-summit talks last month that North Korea had committed to the destruction of all its plutonium and uranium enrichment facilities, dependent on unspecified US measures in return.

Though Yongbyon is a significant site and is believed to be North Korea's lone source of plutonium, the nation is thought to have at least two other sites where uranium is enriched.

Washington has previously said North Korea must unilaterally dispose of all of its nuclear weapons and destroy all of its nuclear facilities before there can be any relief from sanctions.

While the President has garnered some praise for not settling for a sub-standard deal with Kim, the summit will likely be seen as a failure for self-styled deal-maker Trump, who was under pressure to come out of the talks with something of substance as the two leaders' only previous meeting in June last year produced little in the way of concrete agreements.

Ben Riley-Smith, US editor at The Daily Telegraph, said: "One critical question from the Hanoi no deal - why didn’t negotiators see this coming? Traditionally leaders only meet when most details in a deal are agreed, signing off the last few bits. Raises big questions about the whole US approach."

However, Lukman Otunuga, research analyst at FXTM, said that while the chances of a breakthrough deal happening any time soon seem slim, the doors appear to remain open for further negotiations after Trump and Kim's meeting seemed to end amicably.

As such, it appears that the Korean Peninsula will continue under the status quo, with North Korean nuclear missile tests suspended and US military no longer participating in training exercises with the South Korean armed forces, but no plans yet for a third meeting between the two leaders.