Kim Jong-un ‘was shocked’ by new US list of undisclosed nuclear facilities at Hanoi summit
- North Korean affairs expert Zhang Liangui tells forum the talks broke down because Washington changed its negotiating position at the last minute
- Pyongyang ‘felt its expectations would not be met’, he says
The Hanoi summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump collapsed mainly because the US changed its negotiating position at the last minute, according to a Chinese expert on North Korean affairs.
Zhang Liangui, a professor of international strategic research at the Central Party School, said Kim was “shocked” at the talks in February when the US presented him with a new list of nuclear facilities that had not been disclosed by Pyongyang.
The Central Party School trains Communist Party cadres and is a think tank for top Chinese leaders.
Zhang said the new list meant the US required Pyongyang to dismantle all of its underground nuclear arms facilities. That was in addition to what had previously been discussed – destroying the plutonium and uranium-enrichment plants housed at the Yongbyon nuclear complex.
“When the US side pulled out its ‘hidden’ list of undisclosed facilities, Kim Jong-un was shocked not because the US knew about its underground facilities – those sites have been reported by a number of US think tanks before – but because the North felt that its expectations of the talks would not be met,” said Zhang, who was speaking at a forum on North Korea in Beijing on Sunday organised by Dunjiao Media.