JUST IN: North Korea's foreign minister says if the United States removes partial sanctions they can permanently dismantle all nuclear material production; says Pyongyang asked U.S. to lift some sanctions, not entirely pic.twitter.com/yKqx9X7wfC
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) February 28, 2019
Embarrassment for Trump as NorthK foreign minister holds surprise press conference to blame pres. for collapse of nuke summit because HE asked for too much
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
North Korean officials made a rare appearance on Thursday after President Trump departed Vietnam to publicly dispute aspects of his claims about the breakdown in talks. Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho said the country asked for 'partial sanctions' relief, primarily in the areas harming North Korean citizens and affecting their livelihoods. In return, Pyongyang offered to 'permanently' close its plutonium and uranium facilities in the Yongbyon region in the presence of U.S. inspectors. He said North Korea asked the U.S. to lift sanctions corresponding with five United Nations...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
resolutions adopted between 2016 and 2017. Trump said that North Korea was 'not ready' to meet the United States' conditions. Ri said talks broke down 'when it became crystal clear that the US is not ready to accept our proposal,' according to a Bloomberg. The U.S. president expressed confidence that an accord could be struck in the future that would see North Korea denuclearize, but the Ri told news hounds: 'Our proposal will never change.' He left media availability without taking questions. His deputy Choe Son-hui did interact with press, and took a question in English from an NBC news hound on Otto Warmbier. Choe declined to comment, telling a rowdy group of news hounds would only talk about denuclearization. She proceeded to answer questions in Korean for three and a half more minutes before she left the scrum at Melia Hotel in Hanoi. Trump speculated at his presser that 'top leadership' in North Korea did not know about the college student's arrest and his condition, considering it wasn't to Kim's 'advantage' to send him back in a coma.