--- title: Donald Trump's Failure in Hanoi May Have Been a Success description: The consensus among experts was that a whimper was a better way to conclude the summit than a bang canonical: https://time.com/5541095/donald-trump-kim-jong-un-hanoi-reactions/ author: Feliz Solomon article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-02-28T16:55:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-13T08:23:54.819Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Walked Away from North Korea Talks. That's Not So Bad og:description: Experts agreed a whimper was a better way to conclude the summit than a bang og:url: https://time.com/5541095/donald-trump-kim-jong-un-hanoi-reactions/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3adff47d5559a43b/6989460a97cdff33b76b76c3/gettyimages-1128021035.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: VIETNAM-US-NKOREA-DIPLOMACY-SUMMIT og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Walked Away from North Korea Talks. That's Not So Bad twitter:description: Experts agreed a whimper was a better way to conclude the summit than a bang twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3adff47d5559a43b/6989460a97cdff33b76b76c3/gettyimages-1128021035.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Walked Away From North Korea Talks. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=60ecd8d6-5bb5-4752-8ca8-ce2c07f7a6cc&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: President Trump Leaves Empty-Handed: Second Summit With Kim Jong Un Ends Without a Deal [Watch (HLS stream): President Trump Leaves Empty-Handed: Second Summit With Kim Jong Un Ends Without a Deal](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/GAlp1Pg4.m3u8) (2:57)  _Published 2019-02-28. President Donald Trump has hastily cut short his two-day summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, ending the talks early and leaving empty handed._ by [Feliz Solomon / Hanoi](https://time.com/author/feliz-solomon/) ## Feliz Solomon / Hanoi Feb 28, 2019 4:55 PM UTC President Donald Trump has hastily cut short his two-day summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, ending the talks early and leaving empty handed. by [Feliz Solomon / Hanoi](https://time.com/author/feliz-solomon/) ## Feliz Solomon / Hanoi Feb 28, 2019 4:55 PM UTC When the leaders of the U.S. and North Korea met in the Vietnamese capital determined to make a deal on denuclearization, few predicted that the outcome would be, in a nutshell, [nothing](http://time.com/5540780/donald-trump-kim-jong-un-north-korea-summit-no-deal/). But when talks collapsed Thursday between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, the consensus among experts was that a whimper was a better way to conclude the summit than a bang. Trump said talks broke down when Kim brought an unacceptable offer to the table: a blanket removal of U.S. sanctions in exchange for partial denuclearization. Trump entered negotiations at a disadvantage; [problems were piling up at home](http://time.com/5538748/michael-cohen-congress-testimony/), and Kim may have overplayed his hand on the assumption he’d take a win wherever he could find it. “They wanted the sanctions lifted in entirety, and we couldn’t do that,” Trump said in Hanoi. “We had to walk away from that.” Trump and Kim were widely expected to reach some form of agreement that in principle would formally end the Korean War in exchange for concrete commitments on denuclearization — a tradeoff that analysts were ready to call an unacceptable giveaway. Reporters in Hanoi were caught off guard however when a scheduled “signing ceremony” was suddenly canceled and the White House Press Secretary said in a statement that, “No agreement was reached at this time.” The underwhelming outcome has already been described as both a “[failure](https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/28/politics/donald-trump-hanoi-kim-jong-un-analysis/index.html)” and “[the right move](https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/28/susan-rice-trump-kim-summit-1195525).” On the one hand, it delays further talks and throws fundamental disagreements — such as the definition of denuclearization and the importance of inventory in any further negotiations — into stark relief. On the other hand, several experts shared the same sentiment, borrowing a phrase from U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May: “No deal is better than a bad deal.” “This is the start of a long process,” says David Kim, a research analyst at the Stimson Center. “It’s like there are two lovers; they’re going to have their fights, but ultimately, if they’re committed, they’re going to work it out.” Jenny Town, a research analyst for the North Korea monitoring site 38North, says the tone of relations “still seems relatively positive,” but the stakes are now higher for a successful outcome. “My worry is that the door is open and there may be a way forward, but we may be moving back to a place where it’s all or nothing.” Many doubted Kim would ask for full sanctions removal, as the U.S. would be highly unlikely to grant such a move. “I can’t imagine that Kim Jong Un would have said, ‘you must lift all of the sanctions’,” says Town, suggesting Trump may have paraphrased the demand imprecisely. Just as likely, says Christopher Green, North Korea analyst for the International Crisis Group, North Korea may have had its own reasons to stall a pact, and “therefore put a maximalist position on the table that the American side wouldn’t agree to.” Whatever the reasons, the summit’s failure to produce an actionable agreement was decidedly not a loss. “Was this the best outcome? No,” says Green. A better conclusion, he says, would have been a fully consultative working-level agreement. But it’s still a long shot. “I don’t think the prospects for denuclearization have ever been particularly good,” he says. “I think it’ll take a lot of creative diplomacy to unlock all the differences.” ## Transcript Six months ago when you spoke or eight months ago in Singapore you said if you didn't have something in six months, you should probably come back and ask you about it. In that time you have seen Chairman Kim increase the number of missiles produced and continue to produce more nuclear material. And that's been a pressure point on you, because he's showing that the arsenal's getting larger while this is going on. Well, some people David are saying that, and some people are denying that. They have shots from above, way above, and some people are saying that, and some people aren't. But I could have taken that out Today, but I think you and others would've said, we didn't get enough for what we'd be giving up. Don't forget, we're partners with a lot countries on this, if you think about it, with the sanctions. We have a whole big partnership with the United Nations and many countries, including Russia, China and others. And then of course South Korea is very important to this whole thing and Japan. I don't want to do something that is going to violate the trust that we've built up. We have a very strong partnership. So can you just give us a little more detail? Did you get into the question of actually dismantling the Young Gum complex? Yes, absolutely. And does he seem willing ultimatly -> Totally. -> to take all of that out. Sure, totally. He does. He just wants all the sanctions off first is what you're telling- He would do that, but he wants the sanctions for that. And as you know, there's plenty left after that. And I just felt it wasn't good. Mike and I spent a long time negotiating and talking about it to ourselves and just, I felt at that particular, as you know, that facility, while very big It wasn't enough to do what we were doing. So he was willing to do [ UNKNOWN ], but you wanted more than that? I assume- We had to have more than that, yeah. We had to have more than that- And so you- But there are other things that you haven't talked about, that you haven't written about, that we found and we have to have. That was done a long time ago, but the people didn't know about. And we brought- Including uranium? Yeah. Including the second uranium enrichment plan? Exactly, and we brought many Many points up that I think they were surprised that we knew, but we had to do more than just the one level. Because if we did the one level and we gave up all of that leverage just for taking a long time to build. And I want to really- [ UNKNOWN ] He's not willing to take out that second- David, I want to take off the sanctions so badly because I want that country to grow. That country Has got such potential, but they have to give up more. We could have done that deal. Mike, you wanna speak to that? Only, David, there are also timing and sequencing issues that were associated with that as well, which we didn't quite get across the finish line as well, but remember too, even that facility, even the Yongbyon facility And all of its scope which is important for sure still leaves the missiles still leaves warheads and weapon systems and so there's a lot of elements that we just couldn't get to. And the listing of all of them. And the declaration all of those things we couldn't quite get there today. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5541095/donald-trump-kim-jong-un-hanoi-reactions/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5541095/donald-trump-kim-jong-un-hanoi-reactions/"},"headline":"Trump Walked Away From North Korea Talks. 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