Now amid numerous speculation over why the talks fell apart... some foreign experts say the two sides might have lost their footing as they headed into the negotiating room with two very different timelines.
Oh Soo-young reports.
North Korea and the United States are working on different timelines to hammer out a "creative deal" on denuclearization.
That may be the essential problem that led to the breakdown of the recent working-level talks in Stockholm.
"We're very focused on sanctions relief and on some kind of security guarantee, but I think there's a third kind of piece and that may be playing into these working-level negotiations as far as these summits and what would be required to hold the summit and that gets to the second point which is timing. When I look at these statements, especially the North Korean statement is very focused on the timing and actually if you if you peruse their phrases, they were frustrated that they didn't hear enough from the Americans and Americans stressed the importance of having lots of meetings."
While North Korea has set the year-end as the deadline for the U.S. to break the deadlock in the stalled negotiations,... President Trump has said repeatedly that he's not in any rush.
Most analysts say Trump's own timeline is likely set for November 2020,... in time to give him a boost for the next U.S. Presidential Election.
But to clinch a deal that's worth supporting,... experts say Trump needs to get involved - and fast.
Dr. Mark Barry says no negotiations between the two sides have succeeded on a working level without intervention from the top leadership,... citing how it took former President Jimmy Carter to convince Kim Il-sung to freeze the North's nuclear program in exchange for light-water reactors and heavy fuel oil in 1994.
"So it seems to me that they've been looking back at the past hundred days and through all their other means of measuring and detecting what's going on within the thinking of the Trump Administration. They don't see much change if any since Hanoi and I think this is the Crux of the problem. My perception is that the N. Koreans have a lower view of this state department's negotiation capabilities than the N. Koreans on the S.D. under the Clintons or under George W. Bush. I think personally that the United States needs to treat the Korean issues more as the United States had treated the Arab-Israeli issues as an honest broker having Camp David Summit such as was done in 1979, the Camp David to Summits between the Israelis and the Palestinians that President Clinton invested two weeks of his time and that's how it has to be done."
It's unclear whether the U.S. can convince the North to return to Sweden for talks in two weeks' time,... but experts say any further discussions may require a personal touch from President Trump.
Oh Soo-young, Arirang News.