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Concern after US-North Korea summit cut short

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Fri, 1 Mar 2019, 6:36AM
Planned events were cancelled after a disagreement over sanctions. (Photo / AP)

Concern after US-North Korea summit cut short

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Fri, 1 Mar 2019, 6:36AM

US President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un abruptly cut short their second summit today without reaching an agreement, a stunning collapse of talks that caused both leaders to leave their Vietnam meeting early and cancel a planned signing ceremony.

Trump says they left the meeting with a strong and friendly relationship, despite disagreeing on the issue of US-led sanctions.

But Leeds University expert Aidan Foster-Carter told Kate Hawkesby that's probably not the case.

"We really, really need to hear the North Korean version of things and we have not heard that yet."

"We know that the summit broke up and it seems to me to be a bit of a disaster, clearly not what anybody wanted," he said.

"We have one account, a plausible account of what happened but we need to hear what the other side said. I'm slightly worried that North Korea might be very cross."

However, he acknowledged that it is difficult to trust what North Korea says but he said clearly something has gone wrong.

"In normal diplomacy, which we don't really get in the Trump era, you would have had all of this thrashed out in working meeting long before it got to the circumstances of a vast summit, in a third country that's put out a vast amount of effort for this to happen...and all for what?"

Foster-Carter said dealing with North Korea is difficult but the US needs to "get their act together" if the negotiators are to go forward.

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