Trump cancels summit with Kim Jong Un

“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 to Kim released by the White House.

Trump’s letter came after North Korea attacked US Vice-President Mike Pence as “ignorant and stupid” for his warnings over the planned summit, renewing a threat to cancel the historic talks.

The meeting, which would have marked the first face-to-face encounter between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader, was set for June 12.

The news came as North Korea made a show of dismantling a nuclear test site, but also on the heels of some sharp words from the North Korean government about America denuclearisation demands.

Doubts had grown in recent days about whether the summit would actually happen. North Korea abruptly cancelled talks with South Korea out of anger over joint military tests with the US in the Korean peninsula. While Trump had repeatedly played up the historic significance of the meeting, he also often leavened his optimism with a cautious “we’ll see”.

See Trump’s letter to the North Korean dictator below.