Donald Trump Sean Hannity Interview: Kim Jong Un 'Mercurial,' 'Smart,' President Says

In an interview with Fox News, just after his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam, President Donald Trump called his North Korean counterpart a “mercurial” character. The term usually refers to an “unpredictable changeableness of mood.”

Speaking to host Sean Hannity, Trump explained why the highly-publicized summit collapsed. He said they “didn’t sign anything” and that the talks “didn’t quite work out.” Trump further explained that while he asked for complete denuclearization, Kim wanted to “de-nuke certain areas” only.

Noting that his ties with Kim could improve in the future, Trump said the North Korean leader genuinely wanted to withdraw from nuclearization but wasn’t ready to do it all at once.

“His answer was, ‘I wouldn’t be here otherwise,’” Trump said adding, “We get along really well. He’s a different kind of a guy. I have a feeling something down the line will happen.”

“He’s a character. He’s a real personality. And he’s very smart. He’s sharp as can be. He’s a real leader. He’s pretty mercurial. He likes me, I like him,” Trump said.

Speaking about the progress in the denuclearization talks since the first summit in Singapore last June, Trump said, “The fact is that he also said he’s not going to do testing, and he said that recently, and he said it again to me just a little while ago. He doesn’t want to do testing. He’s not going to do that. That’s a big thing. No rockets, no anything and I believe, you know, when he tells me that. I will take him at his word. But we’ll see how it all goes.”

The summit between the two leaders abruptly ended without an agreement Thursday after they cut short their discussions. In a press conference post the summit, Trump said: “Sometimes you have to walk.”

“It was about the sanctions. Basically, they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, and we couldn’t do that. They were willing to de-nuke a large portion of the areas that we wanted, but we couldn’t give up all of the sanctions for that,” Trump added.

North Korea's minister of Foreign Affairs, Ri Yong ho, however, contradicted Trump’s statement and said the country did not ask for all sanctions to be lifted.

"What we proposed was not the removal of all sanctions, but a partial removal," he said, adding, “If the U.S. removes partial sanctions... that hamper the civilian economy and the livelihood of our people, in particular, we will permanently and completely dismantle all the nuclear material production facilities.”