Trump's Decision to Leave the Hanoi Summit: Success, or Failure?

His critics are calling it a failure. But President Trump and members of his administration say walking out of the Hanoi summit was a necessary step in a lengthy process to reach agreement on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. 

Despite the abrupt end to the summit, President Trump is optimistic about eventually reaching a deal with North Korea. Thursday night, he told Fox's Sean Hannity that relations with Kim Jong Un remain friendly.

"We get along really well. He's a different kind of a guy and I said look, this is not going to be working, so I have a feeling something down the line will happen and it will happen and it will be good," Trump said.

CBN News Asia Correspondent Lucille Talusan was in Hanoi for the summit. On CBN's Global Lane program, she reported that lower level negotiations with North Korea will continue.

"A relationship between North Korea and the United States is building up. It's developing, Talusan explained. "And as Secretary Pompeo also said, they know each other better, the teams from North Korea and the United States they know their limitations, they understand one another and hopefully they will work together."

Foundation for Defense of Democracies Vice President Jonathan Schanzer said building a lasting relationship with North Korea is a matter of developing trust and verification. In the past, North Korea has tricked the US when agreements were made. 

"If you look at the history of our dealings with North Korea, it's like the old Peanuts cartoon with Lucy and the football right, where uh, she holds the football and Charlie comes up to kick the field goal and falls right on his back," he said.

The history of North Korea deceiving the West looks like this: An agreement is reached to halt testing, western sanctions are lifted, eventually North Korea resumes nuclear development and missile launches.

In Hanoi, Kim wanted sanctions lifted without destroying all his missiles and nuclear development facilities. 

Like Ronald Reagan who walked out of the Reykjavik Summit with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986, Trump said no.

The president told Hannity, "Whether it's Reagan, whether it's anybody, I mean you have to be prepared to walk. And this just wouldn't have been good for our country."