Trump cancels Singapore summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, citing 'open hostility'
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump has cancelled his planned June 12 summit with North Korean leader Mr Kim Jong Un.
In a signed letter addressed to Mr Kim, President Trump wrote: “Sadly, 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.”
“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,” he wrote.
“This missed opportunity is truly a sad moment in history,” he wrote. But importantly the letter also said: “Some day, I look very much forward to meeting you.”
“If you change your mind having to do with this most important summit, please do not hesitate to call me or write.”
Analysts said this seemed to indicate the summit may be postponed, not necessarily off the table.
But the abrupt cancellation did not really surprise Korea watchers skeptical that both countries were on the same page on the US’s demand of complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation in North Korea.
Dr Balbina Hwang, visiting professor at Georgetown University, told The Straits Times : “It looks like this is what the North Koreans really wanted. Maybe they realised they had put too much on the table, they were giving away too much.”
“Complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation was going to be a long shot anyway,” Dr Sue Mi Terry, Senior Fellow at the Korea Chair at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said on MSNBC.
Republican Senator Tom Cotton in a statement said: “North Korea has a long history of demanding concessions. I commend the President for seeing through Kim Jong Un’s fraud. The maximum pressure campaign must continue.”
Former top diplomat Christopher Hill, calling in to MSNBC, said the dialogue with North Korea should have been started in a more calibrated manner than at the top level with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visiting Pyongyang and meeting Mr Kim.
Also, National Security Advisor John Bolton’s citing of the “Libya model” – in which Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi gave up his nuclear programme but later was killed in an uprising against his rule supported by western powers, had been ill advised.
North Korea in its recent statements had cited Mr Bolton's comments, rejecting the comparison with Libya.
“John Bolton is not stupid, he had a purpose and the purpose was essentially to threaten the North Koreans,” Ambassador Hill said. “They don’t mind issuing threats of their own but they don’t like being threatened by others.”
Analysts however downplayed the danger of a return to pre-summit hostility. North Korea may not necessarily return to testing its nuclear devices and missiles, Dr Terry said.
“We’re not close to a dangerous time yet, so we need to take a deep breath,” Dr Hwang said. “In 2012 North Korea sank a South Korea ship killing over 100 sailors; we are not close to that kind of thing yet.”
https:// www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/trump-calls-off-singapore-meeting-with-north-koreas-kim