Gabbard: ‘Failure to come to an agreement on NK’s nukes brings me no joy’

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) said Thursday that she derives “no joy” from the failure of President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to reach an agreement at their summit in Hanoi, Vietnam.

She added in a tweet that it instead brings her “deep concern.”

“Yesterday’s failure to come to an agreement on NK’s nukes brings me no joy, but rather deep concern,” tweeted Gabbard, who is running for president in 2020.

Yesterday’s failure to come to an agreement on NK’s nukes brings me no joy, but rather deep concern. But as I said yesterday on @Hardball, NK will not give up their nukes unless there is a complete re-appraisal of US regime-change “foreign policy.” pic.twitter.com/l4UmUIlsOf

— Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) February 28, 2019

{mosads}The summit included a one-on-one meeting between Kim and Trump as well as a dinner Wednesday night. There was another one-on-one meeting Thursday and a meeting with their aides.

But talks between Trump and Kim came to an abrupt end Thursday after Kim demanded U.S. sanctions on North Korea be lifted entirely, Trump said.

“It was about the sanctions,” Trump said at a news conference. “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.”

Trump added during his news conference that “sometimes you have to walk.”

“This was one of those times,” he said.

Gabbard predicted earlier in the week that it was unlikely Kim would surrender his nuclear weapons.

“North Korea will look at Trump’s actions, not empty promises,” Gabbard tweeted. “We can’t expect Kim to believe that we won’t overthrow him if he gives up his nukes, when he sees us threaten to carry out regime-change war in Iran and Venezuela.”