President Trump and Kim Jong-un’s failure to reach an agreement in their second summit was “really bad news” for the North Korean leader, according to a former top State Department official who had a instrumental role in opening the current nuclear diplomacy with Pyongyang.

Mr. Trump’s decision at the Hanoi summit to reassert the U.S. position that “we cannot move on sanctions until there is much more progress on denuclearization” has altered the “power dynamics” going forward, says Ambassador Joseph Yun, who was U.S. special envoy on North Korea from 2016 to 2018.

President Trump was back in Washington on Friday morning, facing conflicting accounts of why his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un broke down. The president said he walked away from the table because Kim wanted complete sanctions relief. But in a rare press conference overnight, North Korean officials said they only wanted some sanctions lifted.

“A second summit between U.S. 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 give up its nuclear program.” Reuters

The left credits Trump for walking away from a bad deal, but criticizes his naive approach to diplomacy with a brutal dictator.

President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un abruptly cut short their two-day summit Thursday after they were unable to reach an agreement to dismantle Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons.

Talks collapsed unexpectedly amid a disagreement about economic sanctions, with the two leaders and their delegations departing their meeting site in Vietnam’s capital without sitting for a planned lunch or participating in a scheduled signing ceremony.

President Trump and Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, abruptly ended their second summit meeting on Thursday after talks collapsed with the two leaders failing to agree on any steps toward nuclear disarmament or measures to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

“Sometimes you have to walk,” Mr. Trump said at an afternoon news conference in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam.

President Trump’s second denuclearization summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un fell apart Thursday in a dispute over lifting economic sanctions, cutting short two days of talks aimed at dismantling Pyongyang’s weapons program.

After several hours of discussions, Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim abruptly parted ways over North Korea’s demand that the U.S. lift crushing sanctions in exchange for something less than the full dismantling of all Pyongyang’s weapons sites.

US president says North Korea wanted all sanctions lifted for only partial denuclearisation.

The second summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un ended in failure on Thursday with the two sides far apart on the central issues of disarmament and sanctions relief.

President Donald Trump flew halfway around the world for his hastily arranged second summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, betting that his personal diplomacy could overcome sticking points both sides have known about for years.

Now he’s coming home empty-handed.

The second summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ended without any deal or agreement.

Washington insists though that dialogue with Pyongyang will continue and the collapse of the Hanoi summit is not a major disappointment.

Here's a roundup of North Korea experts looking at the summit and what to make of its sudden end.

A predictable 'no deal'
Ankit Panda, senior editor, The Diplomat

The nuclear summit between President Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un fell apart Thursday when the parties failed to reach a deal over the issue of sanctions relief.

In a news conference Trump explained the meeting ended abruptly because of Kim's insistence on lifting sanctions without committing to the elimination of his country's nuclear arsenal.

“I am always prepared to walk,” Trump told reporters. “I am never afraid to walk from a deal.”