190228 Trump Kim
US President Donald Trump (R) walks with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un during a break in talks at the second US-North Korea summit at the Sofitel Legend Metropole hotel in Hanoi on February 28, 2019. Image Credit: AFP

Seoul: Two years after a landmark summit between North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump, any hopes for improved ties have turned to feelings of “despair,” Pyongyang’s foreign minister said Friday.

In a lengthy statement carried by the state Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Foreign Minister Ri Son Gwon said while people in both countries wanted peace, Washington was “hell-bent on only exacerbating the situation”.

“What stands out is that the hope for improved DPRK-US relations — which was high in the air under the global spotlight two years ago — has now been shifted into despair characterized by spiraling deterioration,” Ri said in the statement.