BEIJING (REUTERS) - China hopes that the United States and North Korea can exercise patience, meet each other halfway and continue to talk, China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi told US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday (March 1) in a phone call, China's Foreign Ministry said.
A second summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam was cut short after they failed to reach a deal on the extent of sanctions relief North Korea would get in exchange for steps to dismantle its nuclear programme.
The Hanoi summit came eight months after Mr Trump and Mr Kim met for the first time in Singapore and agreed to establish new relations and peace in exchange for a North Korean commitment to work towards complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
Mr Trump said two days of talks had made good progress but it was important not to rush into a bad deal. He said he had walked away because of unacceptable North Korean demands.
"It was all about the sanctions," Mr Trump told a news conference after the talks were cut short. "Basically, they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, and we couldn't do that."