Anchor: In the wake of the collapse of their nuclear summit last week, Washington and Pyongyang are issuing discrepant accounts of what went wrong. In response to the North Korean foreign minister's news conference over the weekend, U.S. national security adviser John Bolton pointed the finger at Pyongyang, saying Kim Jong-un was not ready for the U.S.' grand bargain.
Kim Bum-soo has more.
Report: U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton says North Korean leader Kim Jong-un wasn't ready to accept a "big deal.”
[Sound bite: US Nat'l Security Advisor John Bolton (Mar. 3 / CNN "State of the Union")]
"The president wanted to make that big deal. He pushed very hard for it. The North Koreans were not willing to walk through the door that he opened for them."
In an interview with CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, Bolton addressed the collapse of the nuclear summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un last week.
[Sound bite: US Nat'l Security Adviser John Bolton (Mar. 3 / CNN "State of the Union")]
"I think it was unquestionably a success for the United States because the president protected, defended American interests."
Bolton said the best thing Pyongyang could do now would be to provide a full account of what happened and who was responsible for it.
In an interview with Fox News, Bolton said Trump handed Kim Korean and English versions of the U.S. proposal in which the North would entirely denuclearize in return for an enormous economic future.
This came in the wake of North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho's news conference in Hanoi on Friday.
[Sound bite: N. Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho (Korean)]
"[Our position was that] if the United States agrees to lift partial sanctions on people's livelihood and economy, especially those damaging the livelihood of the DPRK people, the DPRK will permanently and completely dismantle all the nuclear production facilities in Yongbyon area, including plutonium and uranium in the presence of U.S. experts and by the joint work of technicians of both countries."
Ri said it's hard to say if his regime could reach an improved agreement at the present stage, adding it may be difficult to foresee such an opportunity again.
[Sound bite: US President Donald Trump]
"Basically they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety. They were willing to denuke in certain areas but we couldn’t lift the sanctions. They were willing to give us certain areas but not the areas we wanted."
Shortly after his meeting with Kim, Trump said the North wanted all of the U.S.-led UN sanctions lifted. North Korea’s top diplomat said Kim only wanted five of eleven sanctions removed, those adopted between 2016 and 2017.
Experts noted that Pyongyang’s officials are calling its side of the proposal a partial lifting of sanctions in terms of the number of sanctions involved. The U.S. on the other hand is focused on the impact of the sanctions and believes providing relief to the tighter sanctions implemented since 2016 is akin to dismissing all of them.
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.