The office of South Korean President Moon Jae-In said Thursday it is "very regretful and disconcerting" that President Donald Trump decided to cancel his planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The lament from Moon's office followed an emergency midnight briefing with his national security council, which was scrambled together after Trump said he abandoned the summit over Kim's recent statements toward the U.S.
"It is very regretful and disconcerting that the US-NK summit will not happen as planned," Moon's office said. "Denuclearization and the lasting peace on the Korean peninsula cannot be abandoned or delayed as they are the historical assignment."
South Korea's Blue House added: "The sincerity of the affected parties who have been working to resolve the problem has not changed. It is hard to resolve sensitive and difficult diplomatic issues with the current way of communications. [We] hope that the leaders resolve problems through direct and close dialogue."
The meeting, which was scheduled for June 12 in Singapore, would have been the first-ever face-to-face meeting between a U.S. president and a North Korean leader.
Moon played a prominent role in planning for the summit with Kim Jong Un, and had gone so far as to say "the future of the Korean peninsula" hinged on the meeting during a visit to the White House earlier this week. But in remarks to reporters alongside Moon in the Oval Office Wednesday, Trump cast doubt on the prospect of the landmark meeting.
North Korea had recently canceled planned talks with South Korea, saying the annual military drills between its southern neighbor and the U.S. represented a threat.
Earlier Thursday, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency quoted a presidential office spokesman as saying they "are trying to figure out what President Trump's intention is and the exact meaning of it."
Trump released a letter to Kim on Thursday saying he had canceled the summit because of "tremendous anger and open hostility" expressed in a recent North Korean statement.
He did not elaborate, but a North Korean vice minister of foreign affairs issued a statement referring to comments by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence as "ignorant" and "stupid," and saying North Korea is just as ready to meet in a nuclear confrontation as at the negotiating table.
--The Associated Press contributed to this report.