ROK president says meaningful progress made at 2nd DPRK-US summit

SEOUL - Republic of Korea (ROK) President Moon Jae-in said Friday that meaningful progress was made in the second summit between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the United States despite a failure to reach an agreement between the two leaders.

Top DPRK leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump made "meaningful progress" in their second summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, as they improved "mutual understanding and trust" through the long-hour dialogue, Moon said during a speech marking the 100th anniversary of the independence movement against Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, according to the presidential Blue House.

Kim and Trump held a two-day summit, the second following the Singapore meeting in June last year, but it was cut short Thursday. A working lunch and a signing ceremony for a possible agreement were scrapped.

The exact reason for the early and abrupt end to the Kim-Trump summit remained uncertain. No deal was reached in the Hanoi summit, according to the White House.

Trump said in a press conference before leaving Hanoi that the DPRK demanded a complete removal of all sanctions against Pyongyang in exchange for a large portion of denuclearization.

However, Ri Yong-ho, the DPRK's foreign minister, told a separate press conference later in Hanoi that Pyongyang called for partial sanctions relief directly related to the living standards of DPRK citizens in return for the verifiable dismantlement of all plutonium-reprocessing and uranium-enrichment facilities at the Yongbyon nuclear complex.

Despite the conflicting accounts, Moon said Kim and Trump moved closer to normalizing relations with the discussion of liaison offices in both countries.

Calling the no-deal summit "a process going toward a higher-level agreement," Moon vowed to help Kim and Trump reach a "complete agreement."