To have assumed last weekend’s working-level discussions between U.S. and North Korean negotiators would result in a groundbreaking diplomatic achievement would have been a fool’s errand, but very few anticipated that the dialogue would collapse so quickly.

Days after news of the impasse first broke, it’s difficult to determine why the U.S.-North Korea talks in Sweden ended so abruptly after only eight and a half hours.

Both sides have issued completely conflicting statements, further muddying the waters. North Korean chief negotiator Kim Myong Gil strongly condemned the U.S. team for what he described as the Trump administration’s inability