Krishanti Vignarajah, an Obama-era State Department senior adviser, told Hill.TV on Thursday that it was fair for President Trump to say it was “unclear” whether there would be a third summit with North Korean leader Kim Jung Un after this week’s summit on denuclearization failed to produce an agreement.
“The theory that I think the president had was that a principal-to-principal conversation could dislodge a longstanding, ongoing battle,” Vignarajah told hosts Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton on “Rising.”
“That’s where it’s a hope, but it’s also a gamble,” she continued. “When I was at the State Department, we had diplomats who laid the groundwork for this because diplomats do what they do, they negotiate.”
“So when President Trump answered the question is there going to be a third summit, I think it was fair for him to say ‘it’s unclear,’ ” she said. “What I hope is, that I hope the State Department does put this in the hands of the people who have been continuing to push the issue of, how do we ultimately remove sanctions when North Korea agrees to certain terms?”
Trump announced at a press conference in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Thursday that the two leaders were not able to come to an agreement.
“Sometimes you have to walk,” the president told reporters. “It was about the sanctions.”
“Basically, they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, and we couldn’t do that. They were willing to denuke a large portion of the areas we wanted, but we couldn’t give up all of the sanctions for that.”
He also appeared to lower expectations by saying he was in no rush to make a deal.
“Speed is not important,” Trump said Thursday. “What’s important is that we do the right deal.”
— Julia Manchester
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