John Kelly, former White House chief of staff for US President Donald Trump, said Wednesday that the two nuclear summits between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un were futile.

“I never did think Kim would do anything other than play us for a while, and he did that fairly effectively,” Kelly said at a Drew University event. “He will never give up his nuclear weapons.” Kelly acknowledged that President Trump tried to make the North give up its nuclear arsenal but “it didn’t work.”

The former chief of staff took part in the first Singapore summit between Washington and Pyongyang in 2018. The following year, the two countries held another summit in Vietnam but it ended with no agreement.

President Trump lashed out at Kelly, saying, “He was way over his head, and being chief of staff wasn’t for him” on Twitter. “He just can’t keep his mouth shut.”

By Choi Si-young (siyoungchoi@heraldcorp.com)