White House: North Korean Summit Off
President Donald Trump canceled the planned historic summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un on Thursday.
In a letter to Kim, President Trump said that recent hostile comments from his regime made the planned summit in Singapore on June 12 “inappropriate,” according to Fox News.
“Based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting,” Trump said in the letter to Kim on Thursday. “Therefore, please let this letter serve to represent that the Singapore summit, for the good of both parties, but to the detriment of the world, will not take place.”
President Trump thanked Kim for the release of three American hostages earlier as a goodwill gesture and invited the dictator to “write or call” him if he has a change of heart.
Tensions between the nations grew in recent days, even amid North Korea openly dismantling one of its nuclear test sites while, at the same time, boasting about its nuclear arsenal and calling Vice President Mike Pence “a political dummy,” according to CNN.
North Korean Foreign Ministry Vice Minister Choe Son Hui made the remark about Pence after an interview with Fox News where the vice president said that North Korea could end up like Libya if they didn’t make a deal at the summit, CNN reported.
“Whether the U.S. will meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown is entirely dependent upon the decision and behavior of the United States,” Choe Son Hui said in comments carried by North Korea’s state-run KCNA news agency Thursday, CNN reported.
According to Fox News, it was those comments in particular that led Trump to cancel the historic meeting.
“You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used,” Trump’s letter said. “If you change your mind having to do with this most important summit, please do not hesitate to call me or write. The world, and North Korea in particular, has lost a great opportunity for lasting peace and great prosperity and wealth.”
The summit would have been the first time in history that the leaders from both countries sat down to talk and could have been a major step forward to de-escalate military tensions that have brewed for years on the peninsula.
“This missed opportunity is truly a sad moment in history,” Trump said in the letter.
