North Korea issued a statement Friday saying it is still "willing to give the U.S. time and opportunities" to reconsider talks "at any time, at any format."
Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan called Trump's decision "unexpected" and "very regrettable," and said the cancellation of the talks shows "how grave the status of historically deep-rooted hostile North Korea-U.S. relations is and how urgently a summit should be realized to improve ties."
Kim insisted North Korea's "objective and resolve to do our best for the sake of peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and all humankind remain unchanged."
http://www.startribune.com/trump-cancel ... 483584201/
Now this is an interesting response from NoKo. No more threats and such. It's a message to the US and the world, that NoKo really wants talks. NoKo started expressing a position that talks would start without an expectation of denuclearization.
Japan says it understands President Donald Trump's cancellation of the summit with the North Korean leader. Top officials there say talks should be held when progress on the North's denuclearization is achieved.
Pompeo, testifying on Capitol Hill, said North Korea had not responded to repeated requests from U.S. officials to discuss logistics for the summit. He told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee the lack of response was an additional reason for Trump's decision.
"We got a lot of dial tones, Senator," he told committee chairman Bob Corker.
Pompeo said the North's posture had changed markedly since he returned from Pyongyang earlier this month, a trip during which he met with Kim and oversaw the release of three Americans being held. Trump suggested this week that China was to blame for "a little change" in Kim's attitude. Kim paid a secret visit to his primary ally just before Pompeo's visit, and China is wary of any shift in the balance of power on the Korean peninsula.
Trump's allies in Congress applauded the president, saying he was justified in pulling out of the meeting.
"North Korea has a long history of demanding concessions merely to negotiate. While past administrations of both parties have fallen for this ruse, I commend the president for seeing through Kim Jong Un's fraud," said Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.
Critics were less impressed.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said it was clear Trump "didn't know what he was getting into and now he's walking away" in a "very chummy, palsy-walsy letter" that's "kind of like a valentine to Kim Jong Un."
White House officials have privately predicted for weeks that the summit could be canceled once or twice before actually taking place
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North Korea itself made threats to cancel the meeting and said it doesn’t plan to give up its nuclear weapons program, which is the entire purpose of the meeting.
Cutting through all the smoke, I think that's why Trump canceled the meeting, but left a loving overture on the table, saying Kim can come back to the table once they change their mind. Then North Korea responded with very soft words in return, regretting the cancelation and saying how important it was. Now, NoKo needs to communicate that it denuclearization will be part of the deal.
That, to me, makes the most sense. Trump doesn't want to go to the talks to have a peace treaty which leaves NoKo with nukes. He wants NoKo to roll over on that. He has communicated that he's willing to pay handsomely for that, promising great prosperity to Kim if he will roll over on that issue.
The stage was set for a disaster, if Trump went to the talks and came away with less than denuclearization. So, that's where I hold out hope that the talks will be restarted. The US already gained concessions from NoKo - destruction of the nuke facility - release of prisoners - etc. And, the US sends a message of willingness to walk away. It's a gamble here, and one that may or may not pay off, but if Kim blinks, and comes back to the table, it's essentially with "hat in hand" looking to negotiate the price of denuclearization, and not whether it occurs at all.
“When I was in college, I took a terrorism class. ... The thing that was interesting in the class was every time the professor said ‘Al Qaeda’ his shoulders went up, But you know, it is that you don’t say ‘America’ with an intensity, you don’t say ‘England’ with the intensity. You don’t say ‘the army’ with the intensity,” she continued. “... But you say these names [Al Qaeda] because you want that word to carry weight. You want it to be something.” - Ilhan Omar