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After US President Donald Trump claimed that North Korea had demanded that all sanctions be lifted, North Korea issued a rebuttal in a late night press conference.

“We didn’t ask for all sanctions [to be lifted],” said North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho, who joined North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on his visit to Vietnam, during a press conference that was held at 12:15 am on Friday at Kim’s hotel, the Melia Hanoi.

“We aren’t asking for all the sanctions to be lifted, but only some of them. We’re asking for relief from five of the UN Security Council’s 11 sanctions resolutions, the ones adopted between 2016 and 2017, and in particular the aspects of those sanctions that interfere with the civilian economy and the people’s livelihood,” Ri said.

This flatly contradicted remarks made by Trump during a press conference held at 2:15 pm on Thursday at the JW Marriott Hotel, where Trump was staying. Trump had said that the reason his second summit with Kim ended without an agreement was because North Korea “wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety.”

“We made a realistic proposal during this summit according to the principles of a step-by-step solution and confidence building that were jointly elaborated during our first summit in Singapore in June 2018,” Ri said.

“Our proposal was that, if the US lifts some of the UN sanctions, or in other words those aspects of the sanctions that impede the civilian economy and the people’s livelihood, we will completely and permanently dismantle the production facilities of all nuclear materials, including plutonium and uranium, in the Yongbyon complex, through a joint project by technicians from our two countries, in the presence of American experts,” Ri said.

“Given the current level of trust between our two countries, that’s the biggest step toward denuclearization that we can take at the present moment,” Ri said.

Reporters wait outside the Melia Hanoi for North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho to begin his press conference on Mar. 1. (Park Jong-shik

“What’s even more important when it comes to us taking steps toward denuclearization is the issue of a security guarantee. But since we thought that the US wasn’t comfortable yet with taking military measures, we suggested partial relief from sanctions as a corresponding measure,” Ri added.

“During this summit, we also expressed our willingness to make a written pledge to permanently halt nuclear tests and long-range missile test launches in order to assuage the US’ concerns.”

“When we move through the phase of confidence-building, we’ll be able to make faster progress in the denuclearization process. But during the talks, the Americans never stopped insisting that we should do something in addition to shutting down the Yongbyon nuclear facilities, and as a consequence, it became clear that the US wasn’t prepared to accept our proposal.”

“It’s difficult to say at this moment whether a better agreement than the one we proposed can be reached at the current stage. Even this opportunity might not come again.”

“This principled position of ours won’t change in the slightest degree, and even if the Americans propose negotiations again, there won’t be any changes in our plan,” Ri emphasized.

Ri’s press conference took place shortly after midnight on Friday, just ten hours after Trump’s press conference on Thursday afternoon. Kim and his attendants appear to have made the decision to issue the late-night rebuttal after analyzing the content of Trump’s press conference and discussing how to respond.

North Korea and the US effectively used their respective press conferences to debate what actually was said during Kim and Trump’s negotiations. It will probably take a while before the mood to resume dialogue can be restored.

Following Ri’s press conference, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui fielded questions from reporters. “As Chairman Kim saw how the Americans were unwilling to even provide partial relief from sanctions resolutions on the civilian economy, I got the impression that he may have lost some of his excitement about making a deal with the Americans in the future,” Choe said.

“In my observation of the summit, I got the feeling that Chairman Kim found it a little hard to understand the way the Americans make their calculations,” Choe said.

Choe said that the offer that North Korea made in the negotiations was to “irreversibly and permanently shut down the Yongbyon nuclear complex in its entirety with all its nuclear facilities, including all the plutonium facilities and all the uranium facilities, in the presence of US experts.” According to Choe, that was an offer that North Korea had never made before.

“By refusing to accept this offer, the Americans have basically thrown away the opportunity of a lifetime,” Choe said.

By Noh Ji-won and Kim Ji-eun, staff reporters

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