President says diplomats from Pyongyang to hand-deliver message from North Korean leader
A North Korean delegation set to visit Washington D. C. on Friday is expected to hand-deliver a letter from leader Kim Jong Un to U. S. President Donald Trump.
News of the missive came Thursday while Trump discussed current attempts by both countries’ diplomats to resurrect the summit originally planned for next month.
“They’re going to be coming down to Washington on Friday,” Trump said. “And a letter is going to be delivered to me from Kim Jong Un.”
Kim’s letter is likely in response to a message written by Trump last week in which he outlined his reasons for cancelling the face-to-face meeting.
“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 published on Twitter last Thursday.
In a statement from North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui released earlier that day, Pyongyang lashed out against Vice President Mike Pence for repeating Trump’s threats to use the “Libya model” on Kim if he refused unilateral denuclearization.
“U. S. Vice-President Pence has made unbridled and impudent remarks that North Korea might end like Libya, military option for North Korea never came off the table, the U. S. needs complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization, and so on,” Son-hui said. “As a person involved in the U. S. affairs, I cannot suppress my surprise at such ignorant and stupid remarks gushing out from the mouth of the U. S. vice-president.”
While analysts say North Korea’s response was typical and showed no sign of any intention to cancel the summit, reports indicate National Security Advisor John Bolton – who first drew the ire of Pyongyang for demanding Libyan-style denuclearization – convinced Trump that the message was far more insidious.
North Korea responded to Trump’s letter by stating it was still willing to move forward with the summit at any time and any place.
Trump soon after sent a team of diplomats to North Korea in an attempt to find common ground ahead of a potential summit. Pyongyang has rejected the Trump administration’s demands for “complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization” up front without concession.
On Wednesday Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met in New York with Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Committee, to also discuss the summit.
The meeting is still expected to take place on June 12 in Singapore.
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