WASHINGTON: The
June 12 Singapore Summit
+ between US President
Donald Trump and North Korean leader
Kim Jong-un has been shelved.
The US president wrote to Kim on Thursday morning saying it was "inappropriate" to have the meeting at this time, after Pyongyang directed a volley of invective at vice-president
Mike Pence, even as it fulfilled its pledge to destroy its principal nuclear test site.
Pence had earlier this week reiterated
White House remarks that any US agreement with
North Korea would follow the Libya model - remarks that Pyongyang read as a threat to the life of its leader since Libya's Moamar Gaddafi was killed by a lynch mob after the country denuclearised.
Even though Trump personally assured the safety of a dictator who US intelligence agencies says has inflicted untold miseries on his people, North Korea went ballistic at the Libya reference and trashed Pence in vituperative language, which in turn infuriated the White House.
North Korea also threatened US with a nuclear showdown.
"As a person involved in the US affairs, I cannot suppress my surprise at such ignorant and stupid remarks gushing out from the mouth of the US vice president," North Korean vice foreign minister Choe Son Hui said on Wednesday, calling
Pence a "political dummy"
+ .
"Whether the US 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," she added.
That in turn outraged an equally volatile US president who had also left open the possibility of the
Singapore summit being held or cancelled or postponed depending on North Korea's behaviour.
On Thursday morning, he responded by canning the summit - for now.
"I was very much looking forward to being there with you. 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 wrote in a letter released by the White House. "Therefore, please let this letter serve to represent that the Singapore summit, for the good of both parties, but to the detriment of the world, will not take place."
Trump called it "a missed opportunity" and said someday he still hoped to meet Kim.
Ironically, the Singapore summit meltdown occurred even as North Korea fulfiled one of its principal pledges to destroy its main nuclear testing site on Thursday. An American advance team had also left for Singapore to ready the venue.
The White House had gone so far as to commission a commemorative coin to mark the summit between two volatile leaders, a disclosure that made it the laughing stock beyond the late-night comedy circuit given the volatile temperament of the two leaders featured on the coin.
Indeed, the hair-trigger disposition of the men was always going to be an issue, given the lack of preparation and mutual understanding preparatory to the summit, including mismatched and misunderstood expectations on both sides.
North Korea apparently expected to be treated as an overt and recognised nuclear power on the lines of India, despite lacking the latters' democratic credentials, institutional heft, and international engagement, while seeking security guarantees that possibly included initially freezing, not dismantling, its nuclear weapons program.
The White House expected a complete denuclearisation before any reward, although Trump publicly assured the security and longevity of what US intelligence agencies consider a cruel and odious dictator.
Trump called Kim a "very open and I think very honorable" man in remarks that contradicted what US intelligence agencies have said about him.
A US intelligence assessment on North Korea released this week said Kim is primarily motivated by a desire to remain in power. "Eliminating perceived threats to the Kim family regime and a belief that North Korea it entitled to respect as a world power are the primary drivers of North Korea's security strategy," it said, adding that "North Korea's primary strategic goal is a perpetual Kim family rule via the simultaneous development of its economy and nuclear weapons program."
Although Trump assured Kim personal safety and perpetual stranglehold on the country, the US wanted complete and verifiable denuclearization of the kind it obtained in Libya.
Beyond what it saw as an implicit reference to Gaddafi's bloody end, the comparison also angered North Korea because it said Libya had a very basic and incipient nuclear program, whereas Pyongyang had complete and advanced weapons programme.
