Hanoi (People’s Daily) – Trump holds a press conference at the Marriott Hotel, and the big screen of the Hanoi News Center is showing it live.

Trump holds a press conference at the Marriott Hotel on Feb. 28, 2019. (Photos: Liu Gang/People's Daily)

President Trump said North Korea wants the US to lift the entire embargo, but "we are not ready to do that…We have to avoid this special problem," he said.

"We had a constructive time. Chairman Kim is a person with an interesting personality, our relationship is very strong. However, sometimes you have to go slowly," President Trump said referring to the summit with the North Korean president, affirming that the two sides agreed "the signing of the agreement is not really appropriate".

After Trump spoke, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo went on stage to announce the details. "We have achieved real progress ... in the past 24-36 hours." But added that the two sides "cannot go to the end of the road" yet.

(Photos: Zhao Yipu/People's Daily)

Pompeo said he was still optimistic that the US and North Korean teams could continue to meet in the next few weeks.

"He has a certain vision, not really the same as our vision, but has come much closer than a year ago," the US president said, answering a reporter's question about the non-vision vision. 

Reporters asked if President Trump was the one who made the decision to end the discussion with Chairman Kim Jong-un?

"I don't want to say that it's my decision, because what is the purpose of doing that?" The US president answered, "but we will still keep the relationship open."

Trump then turned to mention his past achievements, talking about the return of US prisoners in Korea to the US and Chairman Kim's promise of not continuing to conduct particle tests. 

"I believe he is the same as he said," the president said.

President Trump said his discussions with Chairman Kim were "friendly" and no one left in anger. "We still love each other, we have a good relationship," he said.

"We did not achieve meaningful things for the US. I think Chairman Kim hoped the two sides could agree. We asked him to do more, but Chairman Kim was not ready to do that. However, I'm still very optimistic," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at a news conference.

He said the negotiations would be very time consuming. "We will continue to work to make progress and achieve the desired world goal of denuclearization of Korea, reducing threats to the people of America and around the world," Pompeo said.

"People talk a lot, but for me it must be you need to be ready to give up nuclear weapons," Trump said.

President Trump said Chairman Kim is ready to remove the Yongbyon base, but wants all sanctions to be removed first, something the US president does not want to do.

Secretary of State Pompeo later said that even if the Yongbyon facility was dismantled, North Korea still had many other nuclear facilities and arsenal, making President Trump unable to reach an agreement with Chairman Kim.

"There are no plans for the next summit," Trump said.

Cover image: VCG