Trump cancels Singapore summit with Kim
US President calls off nuclear talks in letter, citing North Korean leader's 'tremendous anger and open hostility'
WASHINGTON US President Donald Trump yesterday called off a planned historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, even after North Korea followed through on a pledge to blow up tunnels at its nuclear test site.
Referring to a scheduled June 12 meeting with Mr Kim in Singapore, Mr Trump said in a letter to the North Korean leader: "Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it would be inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting."
Mr Trump called it "a missed opportunity" and said he still hoped to meet Mr Kim someday.
The North Korean mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Mr Trump's cancellation of the summit.
US stocks dropped sharply on the news, with the benchmark S&P 500 Index falling more than half a per cent in about 10 minutes.
"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," Mr Trump wrote. "You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God that they will never have to be used."
Cancellation of what would have been the first summit between a serving US president and a North Korean leader denies Mr Trump what supporters hoped could have been the biggest diplomatic achievement of his presidency and one worthy of a Nobel Prize.
"I felt a wonderful dialogue was building between you and me, and ultimately it is only that dialogue that matters," Mr Trump said in his letter.
"Some day, I look very much forward to meeting you."
Earlier yesterday, North Korea repeated a threat to pull out of the summit and warned that it was prepared for a nuclear showdown with Washington if necessary.
In a statement released by North Korean media, Vice-Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui had called US Vice-President Mike Pence a "political dummy" for comparing North Korea - a "nuclear weapon state" - to Libya, where leader Muammar Gaddafi gave up his unfinished nuclear development programme, only to be later killed by Nato-backed fighters.
- REUTERS
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now
