North Korea's top diplomat has contradicted U.S. President Donald Trump's account of his collapsed summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, insisting the North demanded only partial sanctions relief in exchange for shutting down its main nuclear complex.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho said in the early hours of Friday, during a press conference in Hanoi, that what the North had proposed was not the removal of all sanctions but a partial removal.

Hours after the high-stakes summit ended with no agreement, the foreign minister said his country offered to "permanently" get rid of plutonium and uranium processing facilities in Yongbyon under the watch of U.S. experts if sanctions against the regime were "partially" lifted.

Ri said among eleven UN Security Council sanctions resolutions, the North demanded only five, adopted between 2016 and 2017, be removed first as they hamper the livelihood of the people.

He added the request represents Pyongyang's best denuclearization offer at the moment, given the current level of mutual confidence.

Before leaving Hanoi on Thursday, Trump said the summit talks broke down because Kim demanded the lifting of sanctions on Pyongyang "in their entirety."

[Photo : YONHAP News]