Kim, Trump agree to continue 'productive dialogues': KCNA

A photo released by the official North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump walk together in Hanoi, Feb. 28. The second meeting of the U.S. President and the North Korean leader, running from Feb. 27 to 28, focuses on furthering steps towards achieving peace and complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. EPA

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to continue "productive dialogues" to resolve issues raised at their second summit in Hanoi, Pyongyang's official news agency said Friday, a day after the talks ended without a written agreement.

The Korean Central News Agency also said the summit served as an important chance to deepen mutual respect and trust. At the end of the talks, leader Kim said goodbye to Trump while "promising the next meeting," the report said without elaborating.

"They agreed to keep in close touch with each other for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and the epochal development of the DPRK-U.S. relations in the future, too, and continue productive dialogues for settling the issues discussed at the Hanoi summit," the KCNA said, referring to the North by its official name.

Kim "expressed his thanks to Trump for making positive efforts for the successful meeting and talks while making a long journey and said goodbye, promising the next meeting," the report said.

It, however, made no mention of the summit ending Thursday without a signed agreement.

The North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper also carried detailed reports on Thursday's talks, filling its entire front page with an article and a series of photos showing Kim and Trump smiling and shaking hands, but it didn't mention that the talks failed to produce a formal agreement.

After the two-day summit, Trump said the talks ended without a deal because Pyongyang demanded the U.S. lift sanctions "in their entirety" while offering to denuclearize "less important" areas than the U.S. demanded.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho later refuted the claim, saying that they just asked only for partial sanctions relief in exchange for permanently dismantling all fissile material facilities at the country's Yongbyon complex in the attendance of American experts.

The North's Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui also said leader Kim "may have lost his enthusiasm for a deal between the North and the U.S. down the road."

The summit was widely expected to be focused on how to exchange concrete denuclearization steps North Korea could take and "corresponding" reciprocal concessions the U.S. could provide in return, such as easing sanctions.

The Hanoi meetings came eight months after Kim and Trump held their first-ever summit in Singapore last June that committed the two to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

The June summit has been criticized often for being long on promises but short on specifics. (Yonhap)