NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
The summit was planned for June 12 in Singapore.
President Trump pulled out of his planned summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un on Thursday, citing the country's "tremendous anger and open hostility."
Trump said in a letter to Kim released Thursday by the White House that based on recent statements made by North Korea, he felt it was "inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting."
"I felt a wonderful dialogue was building up between you and me, and ultimately, it is only that dialogue that matters," Trump wrote to Kim. "Some day, I look very much forward to meeting you."
The summit was planned for June 12 in Singapore. It would have been the first meeting between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader.
The fate of the face-to-face became increasingly questionable in recent weeks as North Korea balked at joint U,S,-South Korean military exercises.
North Korea also threatened to scuttle the upcoming Trump-Kim meeting over the U.S. insistence on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.
But a defiant statement by a top Foreign Ministry official calling Vice President Pence a "political dummy" and threatening a nuclear confrontation was the final straw for the Trump administration.
"We will neither beg the U.S. for dialogue nor take the trouble to persuade them if they do not want to sit together with us," North Korean state media quoted the official as saying. "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."
Trump responded in kind on Thursday.
He said that North Koreans can talk about their nuclear capabilities, "but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used."
Kim Jong Un and Trump had planned to meet in Singapore on June 12. (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)
Trump called the cancellation "a tremendous set back for North Korea and indeed a set back for the world" before ramping up the his sabre-rattling.
"Hopefully positive things will be taking place with respect to the future of North Korea," Trump said. "But if they don't, we are more ready than we have ever been before."
The military is " is ready, if necessary."
The withdrawal is a major diplomatic blow to Trump, who has taken credit for improved relations between the two Koreas — which are still technically at war — in recent months.
"KOREAN WAR TO END! The United States, and all of its GREAT people, should be very proud of what is now taking place in Korea! "he tweeted in April.
Trump touted his self-proclaimed expertise in deal-making as talk of the led to speculation about a possible Nobel peace prize nomination for the President.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a pair of trips to North Korea and met with Kim, a dramatic inprovement in relations between the U.S. and the Kim regime. Pyongyang also released a trio of Americans who were being held in labor camps, a move that was aseen as a positive step forward.
But Trump began to cast doubt on the meeting with Kim earlier this week, saying that the Singapore summit "may not work," but could "happen later."
"There is a substantial chance it won't work out," Trump said as he met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House on Tuesday.
This screenshot taken on Thursday in Washington, D.C., shows a copy of the letter Trump adressed earlier to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announcing that the planned summit between them in Singapore on June 12 "will not take place." (OFF/AFP/Getty Images)
"I don't want to waste a lot of time. I'm sure he doesn't want to waste a lot of time. There is a substantial chance it won't work out. That's OK."
Moon had been slightly more optimistic, saying that they are "one step closer" to the dream of a denuclearized Korean Peninsula.
Officials from the two sides are reportedly planning to meet in Singapore this weekend to further discuss the agenda and logistics.
North Korea was also moving forward with a major gesture of goodwill ahead of the summit by dismantling its nuclear test site.
The North, which has vowed to stop all underground nuclear testing and intercontinental ballistic missile launches, has invited foreign media to the remote site to observe a ceremony to mark the closing.
However, North Korea did not invite international inspectors to the demolition .
The regime has also said that it is suspending missile tests, which sparked the renewed focus on the region last year after it became capable of hitting the continental United States with a weapon of mass destruction.
The missile tests came as Trump and Kim lobbed insults and threats across the Pacific.
Trump, who dubbed Kim "Little Rocket Man," vowed to take a tougher stance with North Korea than his predecessors last year, before changing his tune.
"Being nice to Rocket Man hasn't worked in 25 years, why would it work now? Clinton failed, Bush failed, and Obama failed. I won't fail," he tweeted in October.
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