Trump Cancels Meeting with North Korea. UN Chief Worried
The U.S. President Donald Trump has decided to cancel his planned meeting with the supreme leader of North Korea Kim Jong Un for unspecified reasons. Trump also blamed North Korea for his decision saying that it will be a major setback for North Korea.
“I have decided to terminate the planned Summit in Singapore on June 12th. While many things can happen and a great opportunity lies ahead potentially, I believe that this is a tremendous setback for North Korea and indeed a setback for the world,” Trump said in a vague statement.
Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on Thursday that he was “deeply concerned” by the cancellation of the planned meeting between the leaders of the United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), commonly-known as North Korea.
I have decided to terminate the planned Summit in Singapore on June 12th. While many things can happen and a great opportunity lies ahead potentially, I believe that this is a tremendous setback for North Korea and indeed a setback for the world… pic.twitter.com/jT0GfxT0Lc
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2018
Speaking in Geneva on Thursday, where the Secretary-General unveiled his new Agenda for Disarmament, Mr. Guterres called on the two parties “to continue their dialogue to find a path to the peaceful and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
The decision to cancel the summit, which was due to take place in Singapore on 12 June, came in the form of a letter from the White House, although both sides had cast doubt in recent days that talks would go ahead next month.
Trump was due to sit down to discuss denuclearizing the Peninsula with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, for what would have been the first ever face-to-face meeting between the leaders of the two countries.
The Korean Peninsula remains one of the world’s longest unresolved conflicts, which began in June 1950. An armistice brought about a ceasefire in 1953, but the war never officially ended.
