US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un abruptly concluded their second summit in Hanoi on Wednesday to discuss the disarmament of Pyongyang without reaching an agreement.
Trump said he had decided to leave because of disagreements over the sanctions and said he had refrained from concluding a nuclear deal with the North Korean leader over Pyongyang's unacceptable demands to lift US sanctions.
The aim of the summit was to define a clearer content of the commitments made at the first Singapore summit in June.
"Sometimes you have to leave, and this was one of those times," Trump said at a news conference before leaving Hanoi. He said the talks had stalled over the issue of economic sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear and ballistic programs.
"I wanted to go further," he said, stressing at the same time that Pyongyang would not resume nuclear testing. "He said he would not test missiles or anything related to a nuclear weapon," Trump said, quoting the North Korean leader.
"I'm not in a hurry, speed is not so important to me," Trump told reporters, stressing that he wanted a "good deal".
Kim Jong-un said he would not have come to Hanoi for a summit with the US president if he had not been prepared for nuclear disarmament but remained ambiguous for any possible concrete action.
The White House initially announced that it would hold a "joint signing ceremony" as well as a working lunch between Kim and Trump, but the US president and North Korean leader left without signing anything.
"We asked him for more, but he was not prepared to do that," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told a news conference.
US intelligence officials said there was no sign that North Korea would abandon its arsenal of nuclear weapons entirely.
South Korea expressed disappointment at the collapse of talks between the US president and the North Korean leader during their summit in Hanoi.
In Tokyo, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he fully supports the US president's decision to end the summit with the North Korean leader without signing an agreement.
"I fully support Trump's decision not to make the easy choice," Abe said after a telephone conversation with Trump.