The historic meeting is off: President Trump wrote a letter to Kim Jong Jun saying their June 12 meeting “will not take place.”
North Korea’s reaction: The country is still willing to “sit face to face” with the US, an official said.
Our live coverage has ended. Scroll through the posts below to read about President Trump’s decision.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke with South Korea’s Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha about President Trump’s decision to cancel the historic summit.
“Secretary Pompeo explained the background of the announcement and the position of the US side in detail,” according to a statement posted on South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.
Pompeo also “emphasized that on the US side there is a clear commitment to continue dialogue with North Korea” and expressed interest in continuing efforts to “create conditions for a dialogue with North Korea in the future,” the statement said.
The statement goes on to say Kang “expressed regret” that the summit was canceled and that it could have “become a turning point for the complete denuclearization and establishment of permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula.”
Pompeo and Kang also “exchanged opinions” on North Korea’s response to the cancellation of the summit.
“They took note that North Korea expressed its continued expectation for the NK-US summit and its willingness to continue the dialogue,” the statement said. “They discussed various measures to maintain the momentum of dialogue.”
CNN’s Will Ripley was among a group of journalists who traveled to North Korea to witness the apparent destruction of three nuclear tunnels at Punggye-ri nuclear test site on Thursday.
Ripley told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that he traveled more than 15 hours to get to the site.
Once Ripley arrived, they received a briefing from a North Korean official. The journalists got to look inside the nuclear tunnels, which were rigged with explosives. North Korea has used the tunnels to conduct six nuclear tests since 2006, Ripley said.
He said they then hiked up a ravine and watched North Korean officials blow up observation buildings, a metal foundry and living quarters at the nuclear test site.
“It was pretty dramatic images, but it was hard really to know exactly what we were seeing,” Ripley said.
North Koreans officials learned that President Trump had canceled the upcoming summit hours after the explosions, he said.
“It was really a surreal moment,” Ripley said.
North Korea’s response to President Trump’s move to cancel the upcoming June 12 summit with Kim Jong Un is “surprisingly restrained,” CNN’s Will Ripley said.
“I thought we were going to get an angrier response from the North Koreans,” said Ripley, who’s in North Korea.
“What they’re saying is that they don’t think that President trump’s decision is in line with someone who wants peace in the peninsula.”
Moments ago, North Korea said it is still willing to sit down and meet face to face with the US.
“They think this situation shows just how severe relations are between the US and North Korea, and they say that’s why the summit is necessary,” Ripley said. “It sounds like the North Koreans still want this summit to happen, even if it doesn’t happen on June 12.”
North Korea expressed a willingness to keep “a big and open mind” when dealing with the US, an official said in a statement published by the state-run Korea Central News Agency (KCNA).
In the statement, Kim Kye Gwan, North Korea’s first vice minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, laid out the country’s position in response to President Trump’s cancellation of the June 12 meeting in Singapore.
Read his statement:
Kim Kye Gwan, North Korea’s first vice minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a statement released on the country’s state media KCNA that it is still willing to “sit face to face” with the US.
“I would like to conclude that President Trump’s statement on the NK-US summit is a decision that is not in line with the wishes of [those] who hope for the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula as well as the world,” Kim Kye Gwan said.
CNN’s Will Ripley, who’s in North Korea right now, said the feeling on the ground is filled “with a lot more anger towards the United States.”
He said he’s waiting for an official reaction from the country’s leaders.
“We’re going to wait until something is put out from the higher level of the government,” he said. “My sense is that the North Korean response is not going to be good. They’re going to feel that the Americans have shown their true colors here.”
“Any trust that was started to be built up between the United States and North Korea probably completely shattered at this point as a result of this. Frankly, it’s really anyone’s guess what’s going to to happen next here.”
Ripley and other international journalists were invited to North Korea to watch the apparent destruction of at least three nuclear tunnels, observation buildings, a metal foundry and living quarters at its Punggye-ri nuclear test site on Thursday.
While North Korean officials were disappointed about destroying the facility, they were hoping it would lead to better opportunities for their country.
“They said they were being transparent,” Ripley said. “They said this was proof that the North Koreans are committed to denuclearization. They said it was a gesture ahead of the summit in Singapore that was going to be on June 12 for President Trump.”
A senior administration official said US officials spoke to South Korea and Japan this morning after President Trump’s letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was made public.
In the letter, Trump told Kim that it was “inappropriate” to have the meeting due to “tremendous anger and open hostility” that he perceived in North Korea’s latest statement.
Trump warned Kim Jong Un of the United States’ nuclear weapons, “so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used” and thanked the North Korean dictator for freeing the American prisoners, “a beautiful gesture.”
The White House downplayed any notion that a June 12 meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could still take place.
“We’ve lost quite a bit of time that we would need in order to. There’s been an enormous amount of preparation that’s gone on … but there’s a certain amount of dialogue at the working level with your counterparts to ensure that the agenda is clear … and June 12 is in ten minutes.”
The official continued: “The President has said he someday looks forward to meeting with Kim.”
Separately, the official said that there was a “shift in attitude” from Kim following his second meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping.
He said “we can only speculate” what happened in the meeting, adding that “the shift in attitude did not go unnoticed by the President.”
Here’s what Trump said earlier today:
President Trump, concluding remarks about the cancellation of the North Korea-US summit, left the door open for a future meeting with Kim Jong Un.
President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have communicated through “diplomacy” and via Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a senior administration official said Thursday, without specifying whether the two leaders had spoken directly.
The official declined to say if Joe Hagin, the top White House official who had been dispatched to Singapore to arrange logistics ahead of the summit, was still going to Asia for logistical meetings as planned.
“I have nothing to announce on that,” the official said.
A US delegation was left hanging last week in Singapore after their North Korean counterparts failed to show up, a senior US official said.
The delegation was in the city to make final logistics preparations for President Trump’s now-canceled summit with Kim Jong Un.
“They waited and they waited,” a senior US official said.
The official said the North Koreans similarly went silent amid US attempts to continue discussions on the summit’s agenda.
“We made numerous attempts … but they have not responded,” the official said.
President Trump’s letter to Kim Jong Un was written entirely in his own words, a senior administration official said.
“The President dictated every word of the letter himself,” the official said.
Here’s the full letter:
French President Emmanuel Macron said he hopes the cancellation of the Trump-Kim summit is “just a hitch” in the peace process.
“I hope very much that this is just a hitch,” he said at a joint-press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg.
The French President went on to say he hoped the efforts employed by both sides in the last couple of weeks “continue in order to defuse tensions in the region” and achieve the goal of denuclearization.
Macron also said that the international community will continue to play its part in trying to achieve that goal and singled out China’s role.
“I would like to thank [President] Xi Jinping for his efforts to exert pressure [on North Korea],” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says his nation views the cancellation of the Trump-Kim summit with “regret,” but added that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had done everything he had promised to do.
“We in Russia view it with regret because we really counted on this very significant step toward the de-escalation of the situation on the Korean Peninsula and that this will be the beginning to the whole process of denuclearization.”
Putin, speaking at joint press conference with French President Emanuel Macron in St. Petersburg, went on to say that Russia and its partners would work to try to bridge the gap between the US and North Korea, and said it would “be better to revert to the mechanisms which have worked quite well to create some kind of dialogue.”
“We hope very much that dialogue will be revitalized, renewed, because without that we can’t hope for any kind of significant progress in solving this extraordinarily important issue,” Putin said.
South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in issued a statement after he called an emergency meeting following President Trump’s decision to cancel the summit with North Korean.
Moon expressed a need for better communication and hoped it would be repaired.
This is the full statement:
Vice President Mike Pence is on his way to Capitol Hill. A spokesperson says it’s for the Senate policy lunch.
He’s expected to brief senators on the North Korea summit, among other issues.
President Trump, concluding his remarks about the cancellation of the North Korea-US summit, left the door open for a future meeting with Kim Jong Un.
“Nobody should be anxious. We have to get it right,” Trump added.
Moments before Trump’s remarks, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who traveled to North Korea and met Kim, echoed the same sentiment: The US is still willing to meet, but it’s now up to North Korea’s leader.
President Trump said he is “waiting” for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to “engage in constructive dialogue and actions” — but until then, US sanctions against North Korea will continue.
Here’s what he said:
President Trump said the US is “more ready than we have ever been before.” He warned that the US, South Korea and Japan are all ready should North Korea take any “foolish and reckless acts.”
“I have spoken to South Korea and Japan, and they are not only ready should foolish or reckless acts be taken by North Korea, but they are willing to shoulder much of the cost of any financial burden, any of the costs associated by the United States in operations if such an unfortunate situation is forced upon us,” Trump said.
President Trump called the cancellation of the summit “a tremendous setback” to North Korea and the world.
He added: “I’ve spoken to general Mattis and the joint chiefs of staff and our military, which is by far the most powerful anywhere in the world that has been greatly enhanced recently, as you all know, is ready if necessary.”
