President Donald Trump called off his summit with Kim Jong-un on Thursday after North Korea hurled insults at Vice President Mike Pence.
Trump said it would be ‘inappropriate’ to hold talks at this time after the Kim regime again tested the limits of his patience.
‘You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never be used,’ he said in a letter to Kim that the White House distributed.
North Korea’s vice foreign minister had slammed Pence for his ‘unbridled and impudent remarks that North Korea might end like Libya.’
Choe Son Hui also said the future of the summit between Pyongyang and Washington is ‘entirely’ up to the United States, as she condemned an interview Pence gave to Fox News.
President Donald Trump called off his summit with Kim Jong-un on Thursday after North Korea hurled insults at Vice President Mike Pence
Trump said in his letter to Kim that as a result of the ‘tremendous anger and open hostility’ demonstrated by North Korea in the latest back and forth, he was pulling out of the June 12 meeting to discuss Pyongyang’s nuclear program.
‘I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting,’ Trump said. ‘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.’
The U.S. president went on to say that he hopes to meet Kim one day and that the good dialogue that was building up between the two nations prior to the recent provocations remains promising.
Trump’s letter to Kim followed a string of threats from the North to call off the summit that had been brokered to discuss a commitment to denuclearization of the Korean Penninsula.
The president told DailyMail.com on Wednesday that he’d make up his mind about attending by ‘next week.’ That was before North Korea’s latest volley, which included the assault on Pence.
‘We will neither beg the U.S. for dialogue nor take the trouble to persuade them if they do not want to sit together with us,’ said Choe Son Hui, according to a report by North Korea’s central news agency on Thursday.
She added: ‘I cannot suppress my surprise at such ignorant and stupid remarks gushing out from the mouth of the US vice-president.
North Korea has called Mike Pence ‘ignorant and stupid’ for comments he made comparing the state to Libya. The vice president is pictured on Wednesday in Connecticut
‘We could surmise more than enough what a political dummy he is (Pence), as he is trying to compare the DPRK, a nuclear weapon state, to Libya that had simply installed a few items of equipment and fiddled around with them.’
Choe Son Hui, North Korea’s vice foreign minister, said: ‘We will neither beg the U.S. for dialogue nor take the trouble to persuade them if they do not want to sit together with us’
Choe said she could suggest to leader Kim Jong Un that North Korea reconsider the summit, set for June 12 in Singapore, if the United States offends the North’s good will.
Earlier on Wednesday, Trump told DailyMail.com the fate of the summit would be decided ‘next week’ as he continued to weigh his options
Pence was a focal part of the initial stages of diplomacy between the U.S. and North Korea.
He sat and watched the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Olympic games in February with Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un earlier this year.
The vice president made the controversial remarks about the North and Libya on Monday in an interview with Fox New’s Martha MacCallum.
‘You know, there was some talk of the Libyan model last week. And as the president made clear, this will only end like the Libyan model ended if Kim Jong Un doesn’t make a deal,’ he said.
‘It would be a great mistake for Kim Jong Un to think he could play Donald Trump.’
I cannot suppress my surprise at such ignorant and stupid remarks gushing out from the mouth of the US vice-president. We could surmise more than enough what a political dummy he is (Pence), as he is trying to compare the DPRK, a nuclear weapon state, to Libya that had simply installed a few items of equipment and fiddled around with them
North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui on Mike Pence’s interview
‘We really hope that Kim Jong Un will seize the opportunity to dismantle his nuclear weapons program, and do so by peaceable means’.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday Washington is prepared to walk away from the talks if it heads in a bad direction.
‘A bad deal is not an option,’ Pompeo said in his written opening statement for a House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee hearing. ‘The American people are counting on us to get this right. If the right deal is not on the table, we will respectfully walk away.’
In his first public testimony in Congress since becoming secretary of state last month, the former Republican House member was questioned for more than three hours about a variety of world hotspots, focusing largely on North Korea and Iran but with tough talk also for NATO ally Turkey.
The vice president made the controversial remarks about the North and Libya on Monday in an interview with Fox New’s Martha MacCallum
Vice President Pence watches the joint march by the athletes of both Koreas at the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Olympics in PyeongChang earlier this year
Choe said she could suggest to leader Kim Jong Un that North Korea reconsider the summit, set for June 12 in Singapore , if the United States offends the North’s good will
Pompeo expressed hope the North Korea summit will take place on June 12 in Singapore as scheduled after Trump said there was a ‘substantial chance’ it will be called off amid concerns Pyongyang will not give up its nuclear arsenal.
He said Trump would be leading the talks but declined to discuss how many people, or who, would be on the summit team.
Pompeo, who was CIA director before becoming secretary of state after Trump fired Rex Tillerson, has met twice with Kim in Pyongyang. On his most recent trip he brought back three Americans who had been held by North Korea.
Pompeo also addressed tensions with Iran over its nuclear program, saying Washington was seeking to meet with European and other allies on the way forward after Trump pulled the United States out of the 2015 Iran deal earlier this month.
He said he intends to meet with allies in June to discuss next steps to stop what he described as all of Tehran’s nuclear and non-nuclear threats.
‘We’re not very far along … A number of discussions have taken place below the foreign minister level,’ Pompeo said.
In a major speech on Monday, Pompeo demanded sweeping changes or said Tehran would face the ‘strongest sanctions in history’ unless it changes its behavior.
Committee members repeatedly asked Pompeo about Americans held in Iran. Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear accord prompted concerns among families of American prisoners held by the Islamic Republic that it will be more difficult to win their release.
A satellite image provided by DigitalGlobe shows the Punggye-ri test site in North Korea as journalist prepare to visit the site ahead of its dismantling
North Korea is expected to demolish the site any day now as part of the peace process
It is located North Hamgyong Province and is the only known nuclear facility in the country