--- title: Donald Trump Again Rejects Conclusions on North Korea description: President Donald Trump has rejected the conclusions of the CIA, State and Defense Departments on North Korea's nuclear weapons. canonical: https://time.com/5554515/donald-trump-north-korea-conclusions-friend/ author: John Walcott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-03-20T00:30:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-13T08:25:41.070Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Just Sidelined His Own Top North Korea Negotiator og:description: He says he and Kim Jong-un are "friends" who can work out a deal og:url: https://time.com/5554515/donald-trump-north-korea-conclusions-friend/ 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: President Trump Just Sidelined His Own Top North Korea Negotiator twitter:description: He says he and Kim Jong-un are "friends" who can work out a deal 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 ---  # President Trump Just Sidelined His Own Top Negotiator on North Korea > Sponsored content. 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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=78bcade0-8dd8-40f7-80f6-7600f0ccdd5a&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 [John Walcott](https://time.com/author/john-walcott/) ## John Walcott Mar 20, 2019 12:30 AM UTC by [John Walcott](https://time.com/author/john-walcott/) ## John Walcott Mar 20, 2019 12:30 AM UTC President Donald Trump has taken increased control of negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, sidelining his own top negotiator and dismissing the warnings of top intelligence and foreign policy advisors in the wake of last month’s failed summit in Vietnam, officials familiar with the developments tell TIME. In recent days, Trump shut down an effort by Stephen Biegun, nominally the Administration’s lead negotiator with Pyongyang, to reestablish a back channel through the North’s United Nations mission in New York, according to four U.S. and South Korean officials. At the same time, Trump continues to dismiss the conclusions of the CIA, State and Defense Departments and other agencies that North Korea will not abandon its nuclear weapons program, continuing to insist that he and Kim can negotiate a deal, according to two U.S.officials. Trump has long said that he believes he can negotiate a deal himself to relieve economic sanctions on North Korea in exchange for a pledge by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to abandon the nuclear program begun by his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, North Korea’s founder, and continued by his father, Kim Jong-il. “The President’s constant refrain is that Kim is his ‘friend’,” said one of the officials, who has tried to present Trump with the unanimous assessment by multiple agencies that Kim remains wedded to his nuclear program, both as a family mission and as a deterrent to any U.S.-led effort to overthrow his regime. **Read More:** [_‘Willful Ignorance.’ Inside President Trump’s Troubled Intelligence Briefings_](http://time.com/5518947/donald-trump-intelligence-briefings-national-security/) In response to questions about the warnings the President has received, the White House said that Trump supports his advisors. “The President has said repeatedly he values his national security and intelligence teams, and that the North Koreans have a major opportunity for a strong economic future if they denuclearize,” said White House spokesman Hogan Gidley. The State Department declined to comment on-the-record regarding Biegun’s blocked outreach. A State Department spokesperson, speaking on background, denied the account. Biegun, speaking at a March 11 conference on nuclear weapons issues in Washington, said “diplomacy is still very much alive” between the U.S. and the North. Government Korea experts remain skeptical of Trump’s top-down approach, and dubious that personal chemistry can overcome the North’s long-term, strategic thinking. “Kim understands that while the President may be somewhat malleable and wants to claim credit for formally ending the Korean Conflict,” said one of the officials, “His successors might be less so.” North Korean diplomats publicly say it is up to the U.S. to make the next move. Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said recently that the U.S. must take steps to match its moratorium on missile launches and nuclear tests. Trump continues to insist not only that he and Kim can reach an agreement, but also that impoverished North Korea’s need for economic development will outweigh its leader’s attachment to its existing nuclear arsenal, according to the officials, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity. U.S. intelligence estimates the North has 20-60 nuclear warheads as well as medium-range missiles that can reach targets, including U.S. military bases, in South Korea and Japan, and perhaps as far as the U.S. territory of Guam. The officials said that they have tried to explain to Trump that the existing sanctions are only as strong as Russia and China, North Korea’s main allies, trading partners, and sources of fuel, allow them to be, and that Moscow’s and Beijing’s enforcement of them has been less than rigorous, as one U.S. official put it. Trump’s insistence on serving as his own lead negotiator, concentrating decision making at the White House has rattled not only U.S. officials outside the White House, but also their counterparts in South Korea and Japan, all the officials said. One fear, said one foreign official familiar with U.S. diplomacy on the issue who spoke only on the condition of anonymity, is that while Trump did not strike a deal with Kim at their recent summit in Hanoi, he still might agree to one now. The official fears Trump might lift some or all the economic sanctions on Pyongyang in exchange for a North Korean pledge to continue a freeze on development and testing of new missiles and warheads and halt efforts to develop a reliable intercontinental ballistic missile and reentry vehicle capable of striking targets in the U.S. Such a deal would leave South Korea and Japan, and American forces in Northeast Asia, still vulnerable to North Korea’s existing nuclear arsenal. At the same time, lifting even some sanctions would remove much of the leverage on the North to accept a more far-reaching, irreversible and enforceable agreement. A second fear, especially in Japan, is that [South Korean President Moon Jae-in](http://time.com/5542704/moon-jae-in-resume-us-north-korea-nuclear-talks/) may urge Trump to cut such a deal. Moon is eager to cultivate better economic and political relations with the North amid lagging domestic support. The Japanese worry that Trump, who already has halted the major joint U.S.-South Korean military exercise, could settle for deal that falls short of eliminating the military threat from the North. Some U.S. intelligence officials also worry that Trump’s fixation on winning an agreement with Kim is causing the Administration to ignore what some think may be a greater threat from North Korea in cyberspace. They point to [a 2014 attack](http://time.com/3639275/the-interview-sony-hack-north-korea/), which the National Security Agency and the FBI traced to Pyongyang, on Sony Pictures Entertainment computer systems that not only stole emails, corporate salaries, and other information, but also destroyed some of the company’s computer network, apparently in retaliation for a comedy about a plan to assassinate Kim. Trump has long said that he values his own instincts over expert advice. “I have a gut, and my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody else’s brain can ever tell me,” he told the Washington _Post_ last November. _With Brian Bennett and W.J. Hennigan in Washington_ ## 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/5554515/donald-trump-north-korea-conclusions-friend/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5554515/donald-trump-north-korea-conclusions-friend/"},"headline":"President Trump Just Sidelined His Own Top Negotiator on North Korea","datePublished":"2019-03-20T00:30:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-13T08:25:41.070Z","description":"President Donald Trump has rejected the conclusions of the CIA, State and Defense Departments on North Korea's nuclear weapons.","url":"https://time.com/5554515/donald-trump-north-korea-conclusions-friend/","keywords":["Foreign Policy","North Korea","South Korea","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3adff47d5559a43b/6989460a97cdff33b76b76c3/gettyimages-1128021035.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"John Walcott","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/john-walcott/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3adff47d5559a43b/6989460a97cdff33b76b76c3/gettyimages-1128021035.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"VIETNAM-US-NKOREA-DIPLOMACY-SUMMIT","caption":"VIETNAM-US-NKOREA-DIPLOMACY-SUMMIT","creditText":"Saul Loeb—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/foreign-policy/","name":"Foreign Policy"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5554515/donald-trump-north-korea-conclusions-friend/","name":"President Trump Just Sidelined His Own Top Negotiator on North Korea"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"President Trump Leaves Empty-Handed: Second Summit With Kim Jong Un Ends Without a Deal","description":"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.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/GAlp1Pg4/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2019-02-28T08:04:27.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/GAlp1Pg4.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5554515/donald-trump-north-korea-conclusions-friend/","duration":"PT2M57S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5554515/donald-trump-north-korea-conclusions-friend/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```