what was said

“In one case, they took billions of dollars — during the Clinton regime — took billions of dollars and nothing happened.”

— Mr. Trump, speaking to reporters in Singapore on Tuesday.

the facts

This is misleading.

The highly anticipated meeting in Singapore ended with a joint statement in which Mr. Kim committed to “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” Later, at a news conference, Mr. Trump recounted how Mr. Kim had contrasted the continuing negotiations with a 1994 nuclear deal that was struck with North Korea during the administration of President Bill Clinton.

Under the 1994 deal, North Korea was to be provided with $4 billion in energy aid for heavy oil shipments and two light-water nuclear reactors. In exchange, North Korea agreed to freeze and dismantle its nuclear weapons program.

By the time the deal broke down years later, during the presidency of George W. Bush, the aid the United States had provided amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars — not “billions of dollars.”

From 1994 to 2003, the United States contributed over $400 million in financial support to the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, or K.E.D.O., the international consortium tasked with overseeing the project. Most of that money went toward fuel shipments.