Pyongyang threatened to call off summit: CNN

North Korean officials had threatened to call off last week’s meeting between leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump during pre-summit negotiations, but became desperate to strike a deal after Trump decided to end the talks without an agreement, CNN has reported.

As Trump prepared to leave a Hanoi, Vietnam, hotel at the end of two days of talks with Kim on Feb. 28, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui rushed over to the U.S. delegation with a message from Kim in a last-minute attempt to save the talks from collapsing, according to the report, which cited unidentified U.S. officials and another source.

The message was about the extent of the North’s Yongbyon nuclear facilities that the regime was offering to dismantle in exchange for sanctions relief. When U.S. officials asked for more clarity, Choe rushed back to Kim and returned with an answer, saying it included everything at Yongbyon, the report said.

Still, the response wasn’t impressive enough for U.S. officials to resume talks, it said.

Choe’s desperate offer sharply contrasted with the brinkmanship the North Koreans displayed in pre-summit negotiations. As the working-level talks yielded little progress, North Korean officials “threatened several times to cancel the summit,” CNN said.

Yonhap