President Donald Trump canceled the planned June 12 summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un Thursday (May 24), citing the “tremendous anger and open hostility” in a recent statement from the North.
Trump said in a letter to Kim released by the White House that based on the statement, he felt it was “inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting.” He added that the North Koreans talk about their nuclear capabilities, “but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used.”
The North Korean statement that he referred to called Vice President Mike Pence a “political dummy” for his comments on the North and said North Korea is just as ready to meet the U.S. in a nuclear confrontation as at the negotiating table. Trump said in his letter that the world is losing a “great opportunity for lasting peace and great prosperity and wealth” now that their summit has been canceled.
The president agreed to the historic sit-down in March after months of trading insults and nuclear threats with the North Korean leader. But after criticism from North Korea, Trump cast doubt this week on whether the meeting would happen.
Read Trump’s letter below.
Donald Trump has called off the planned US-North Korea summit in Singapore, saying in a letter to Kim Jong-un that it represents a missed opportunity “…to the detriment of the world” https://t.co/YoFGTX6HU4 pic.twitter.com/QOLvo0cLRV
— ABC News (@abcnews) May 24, 2018