June 1 (UPI) — Moments after meeting with a North Korean envoy in the Oval Office on Friday, President Donald Trump said the June 12 summit with leader Kim Jong Un was back on.
Trump said he’ll go forward with the scheduled Singapore meeting one week after canceling it over “tremendous anger and open hostility” from Pyongyang.
“We’ll be meeting on June 12 in Singapore,” Trump told reporters after speaking with Kim Yong Chol, North Korea’s top nuclear negotiator and former spy chief, for about an hour at the White House.
Kim Yong Chol delivered a letter to Trump from Kim Jong Un about the summit. It was in response to a letter the U.S. president sent the North Korean leader on May 24 saying it would be “inappropriate” to meet.
“I was very much looking forward to being there with you,” 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.”
Trump may have been referring to comments from officials like Choe Son Hui, who slammed Vice President Mike Pence for comments on Libya and North Korea.
Choe had also suggested the United States should engage in better conduct.
“Whether the U.S. will meet us at a meeting room, or encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown is entirely dependent upon the decision and behavior of the United States,” Choe said.
