[I]WASHINGTON – In a dramatic diplomatic turn, President Donald Trump on Thursday canceled next month’s summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, citing the “tremendous anger and open hostility” in a recent statement by 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.” Adding his own threat, he said that while the North Koreans talk about their nuclear capabilities, “ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used.”
The abrupt cancellation of the June 12 meeting withdraws the U.S. for now from an unprecedented summit that offered the prospect of a historic nuclear peace treaty or an epic diplomatic failure. No sitting American president has ever met with a North Korea leader.
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In the North Korean statement that Trump cited, a top Foreign Ministry official referred to Vice President Mike Pence as a “political dummy” for his comments on the North and said it was up to the U.S. whether they will “meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown.”
Trump said the world was losing a “great opportunity for lasting peace and great prosperity and wealth.”
But he left the door open to the chance that the summit could yet be rescheduled: “If you change your mind having to do with this most important summit, please do not hesitate to call me or write.”
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I wonder where this leaves China. Because Kim’s recent threats to withdraw from the summit came after a secret visit he made to China, it is speculated that China was getting a bit uncomfortable about the coziness that was creeping in between N. Korea and the US
Kim knows as long as he has nukes and he is right in the middle of Asia then all this is just noise. No one is bombing him ever. Just to be clear North Korea has never attacked another nation. However bombing them means nuclear attacks to the pacific usa, Japan, South Korea and everywhere else the usa has bases or interests. The result will be Asia, the pacific and half of USA is a nuclear wasteland. Mutual destruction. Lastly I understand Kim, every country that signed a disarmament with usa paid the ultimate price. Saddam gave up weapons of mass destruction and UN inspectors said they can’t find any anymore. Ironically the west sold them to him a few year before to bomb Iran. Well some shaddy Intel was made to justify gulf war 2 and the WMD were never found. Saddam was hanged all the same. Libya thought they would be “rehabilitated” if he gives them up and give the west contracts. He was invaded and killed in a culvert by west “terrorist group” sorry liberators. The same liberators are still bombing and fighting among themselves in Libya destroying that country. Iran negotiated a nuclear deal with usa. Well Trump threw it away, they are facing bilateral sanctions and possible attacks. Well Kim is learning from history. Don’t trust the imperialist. Make peace with your brother South Korea.
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China isn’t cozying up to North Korea now they have been close since 1950’s. If it wasn’t for China in the Korean civil war, North Korea wouldn’t exist now. They were losing but Mao sent Chinese troops to fight alongside them and the beat the usa troops all the way to the current disputed border. The usa considered bombing China with nuclear weapons but they were afraid that it had its own secret nuclear program. They did. Chinese firms openly trade with the North Korea despite the sanctions. Their common border makes it easy. Technology transfer is also helping them. North is very good at self sufficiency, improvisations and technically advanced. Forget the west media coverage, look at other Asian news on them. They have done well despite the most extreme sanctions every imposed on a nation. Let’s be clear , I know the citizens are not living the highlife of their southern brothers but they are also not begging. They are not a puppet government of the west and that is just fine.
I follow communications from some underground groups (non-western) operating below the radar in N. Korea, with no vested political interests, and per their reports, the situation is dire for the people on the ground.
Also, I don’t think the US would allow the N. Korea situation escalate to the point where a nuclear response is the only possible course of action. They’re likely to carry a pre-emptive strike on N. Korea before that becomes the case. In-fact the problem here will be China, as it would not allow such kind of US military display so close to its borders. So this may eventually point to a US-China conflict.
But I doubt China is ready at this time to openly confront the US like this, given their economic relationship.
No nuclear power will attack another. That is the end of the world. So what is there to gain. A inhabitable planet. If the worst of USSR and usa didn’t go to nuclear war then no one else will. The worry is if a rogue group gets one bomb and blow it up on their perceived enemies. They have nothing to lose.