Kim Jong-un arrives home as NK refrains from criticizing US over Hanoi summit

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un returned to Pyongyang early Tuesday via train through China after a trip to Vietnam.

The North’s state-run Korea Central News Agency reported that Kim had arrived at the Pyongyang station at 3 a.m. Tuesday after wrapping up his official visit to Vietnam and the second North Korea-US summit last week. 

The KCNA’s English news service, however, did not mention Kim’s summit with US President Donald Trump.

North Korean state-run media have so far refrained from criticizing the US about the Kim-Trump summit that ended without an agreement.

Trump and other US officials said the talks ended without a deal because the North had demanded the US lift sanctions “in their entirety” in exchange for denuclearizing only the country’s main Yongbyon nuclear complex, while refusing a US demand to denuclearize other areas. 

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho and Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui held a late-night press conference to refute claims by Trump and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after the summit collapsed.

Ri said they had only demanded partial sanctions relief, while the US insisted that Pyongyang do more in addition to dismantling the facilities in Yongbyon.

Uriminzokkiri, one of the North’s propaganda websites, said Tuesday that the mood for peace across the Korean Peninsula must continue to be heightened.

It stressed Pyongyang’s unwavering will to fundamentally end military hostilities between the two Koreas and bring about lasting peace on the peninsula.

“Joint military exercises with foreign forces, which serve as a root cause of tensions on the Korean Peninsula situation, should no longer be allowed, and the introduction of war equipment, including strategic assets, should be completely halted,” it said.

The North’s parliamentary elections and an assembly of its Workers’ Party propaganda workers, the first in 18 years, are scheduled for March 10 and early this month, respectively. Therefore, Pyongyang is likely to focus on minimizing the unexpected summit outcome while highlighting Kim’s leadership and the country’s unity.

Kim traveled some 7,600 kilometers via train to and from Vietnam, where he stayed for about 100 hours. The train passed through China’s Pingxiang, Nanning, Changsha, Wuhan, Zhengzhou, Tianjin, Tangshan, Shenyang and Dandong.

(sophie@heraldcorp.com)