North Korea threatens to cancel Trump meeting – here’s who they’re blaming this time
US President Donald Trump's cancellation of a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un threatens further strain on US-China ties amid a trade dispute that had been intertwined with Beijing's pressure on isolated Pyongyang.
Trump has pulled out of the summit with Kim, which was planned for June 12 in Singapore.
"President Moon's very ambitious plan to redesign the security situation on the Korean peninsula will undoubtedly face a setback", he said.
"Over the last six days the United States made numerous attempts to communicate with the North Koreans and they never responded to any of those efforts to communicate and to coordinate in advance of the 12 June summit", Pottinger added.
The meeting - scheduled for June 12 in Singapore - would have been the first between a North Korean leader and a sitting USA president.
However it would not be surprising for Beijing to allow increased informal trade with Pyongyang, given Kim's improved relationship with Xi, and the unilateral good faith measures taken by the North that include the destruction of it nuclear test site on Thursday, the release of USA prisoners, and the continued suspension of further nuclear and missile tests.
Mr. Trump's surprise exit capped weeks of high-stakes brinkmanship between the two unpredictable leaders over nuclear negotiating terms for their unprecedented sit-down. The U.S. announcement came not long after Kim appeared to make good on his promise to demolish his country's nuclear test site.
But longtime watchers of North Korea's nuclear program say the closing of the site will have little impact on the nation's capabilities.
Trump's latest about-face sent officials scrambling in Washington.
At a late afternoon briefing Thursday, a senior administration official described the recent interactions between the USA and North Korea as "a trail of broken promises". "It's what caused me to recommend to the president that I thought the time would, in fact, permit us to have a real opportunity to do something historic", Pompeo said.
Kim concluded that North Korea remains "willing to sit down with the United States any time, in any format, to resolve the problems".
Then, barely hours after the dust had settled at the Punggye-ri nuclear facility, Trump announced the summit was dead in a personal letter to Kim.
"We would like to make known to the U.S. side once again that we have the intent to sit with the USA side to solve problem (s) regardless of ways at any time", Kim said Friday, according to the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency.
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It has said in previous, failed talks that it could consider giving up its arsenal if the United States provided security guarantees by removing its troops from South Korea and withdrawing its so-called nuclear umbrella of deterrence from South Korea and Japan.
The explosions, that were witnessed by invited global media, were supposed to build confidence ahead of the planned meeting next month between Kim and President Donald Trump.
The Blue House said on Thursday that it was trying to figure out Trump's intentions in canceling the summit.
WATCH: Trump Pulls Out of Summit With N. Korea: What's Next? But when South Korean official Chung Eui-yong arrived at the White House, he was unexpectedly summoned into the Oval Office and Trump immediately agreed to meet with Kim. He unveiled the date and the time with characteristic showmanship. Pompeo first travelled to North Korea in his capacity as the CIA Director last month and again this month as the Secretary of State.
"We even inwardly hoped that what is called "Trump formula" would help clear both sides of their worries and comply with the requirements of our side and would be a wise way of substantial effect for settling the issue", he said.
It was unclear whether Mr. Trump's move marked a negotiating ploy or a manifestation of mounting internal concerns over ensuring a successful outcome for the summit. Mr. Kim might well take offense at the hardnosed USA approach after he released American detainees and destroyed a nuclear site.
The statement by Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, a longtime nuclear negotiator and senior diplomat, which said the North is "willing to give the US time and opportunities" to reconsider talks that had been set for June 12 in Singapore, could be driven by a need to use the summit to ease crushing worldwide sanctions, or by a determination that a summit with the mercurial Trump is the best opportunity the North will ever have to elevate itself, and its nuclear program, to equality with its archrival.
"I don't think it's the former". He told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee the lack of response was an additional reason for Mr. Trump's decision.
"We talk a lot about summits and deals and the like".
A White House team was set to fly to Singapore this weekend to continue logistical planning for the meeting. Representative Peter King said that while flying with Trump to Long Island, he said he believed the "screws" had been put to Kim and he was ready to make a deal. It often doesn't get mentioned but Donald Trump actually blames China for some of this impasse.
Trump's allies in Congress applauded the President, saying he was justified in pulling out of the meeting.
In the US, Republican Senator Tom Cotton praised President Trump for "seeing through Kim Jong-un's fraud". He said it was "to the detriment of the world" that the summit would not take place.
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