The second meeting between the leaders of the United States and North Korea in Hanoi earlier this year challenged the conventional wisdom that there is no such thing as a failed summit when it ended without any agreement being signed. The widespread consensus is that the Trump administration was responsible for the breakdown of the talks.
For the Japanese government, though, the outcome was acceptable, given that the Trump administration, which had been taking advantage of joint projects between North and South Korea to proactively negotiate with Pyongyang, halted the talks calmly.
While this was a setback for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the hardest blow was to the government of South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Just before the summit, Moon shared his vision for a proposed "new Korean Peninsula regime" designed to kick-start economic cooperation between North and South by resuming tourism at Mount Kumgang and operations in the Kaesong Industrial Region. That vision was derailed.
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