Cancellation raises fears
SEOUL: North Korea yesterday responded with measured tones to United States President Donald Trump’s decision to call off a historic summit with leader Kim Jong Un scheduled for next month, saying Pyongyang hoped for a ‘‘Trumpstyle solution’’ to resolve the standoff over its nuclear weapons programme.
Trump wrote a letter to Kim to announce his withdrawal from what would have been the first meeting between a serving US president and a North Korean leader. The meeting would have been held in Singapore on June 12.
‘‘Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it would be inappropriate, at this time, to have this longplanned meeting,’’ Trump wrote.
Trump’s announcement came after repeated threats by North Korea to pull out of the summit over what it saw as confrontational remarks by US officials.
Friday’s response by North Korean ViceForeign Minister Kim Kye Gwan was more conciliatory, specifically praising Trump’s efforts.
‘‘We had hoped a ‘Trumpstyle solution’ would be a wise way to relieve worries from both sides, meet our demands and realistically resolve problems,’’ he said in a Korean language statement carried by state media.
North Korea has sharply criticised suggestions by senior US officials — including vicepresident Mike Pence — it could share the fate of Libya if it did not swiftly surrender its nuclear arsenal. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was deposed and murdered by Natobacked militants after halting his nascent nuclear programme.
With Trump saying he is keeping the door open to diplomacy and North Korea apparently still looking to benefit from a thaw with South Korea, such steps could be constrained — or at least tempered — by a mutual desire to keep things from spiralling out of control.
But with a new exchange of supercharged rhetoric driving the US and North Korea from the negotiating table, there is growing concern words could be matched with action, including renewed shorterrange missile tests or steppedup cyber attacks by Pyongyang and increased sanctions or deployment of new military assets by Washington, analysts said.
Trump, in scrapping the June 12 summit in Singapore, sounded a bellicose note, warning Kim of the US’ greater nuclear might.
He said the US would continue its ‘‘maximum pressure’’ campaign of sanctions to press North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.
South Korean President Moon Jaein, who worked hard to help set up the summit, urged Trump at a White House meeting on Tuesday not to let a rare opportunity slip away. He initially said he was ‘‘perplexed’’ by Trump’s decision.
Pyongyang had not responded in recent days to queries by the US as it tried to prepare logistics for a June 12 leaders’ summit, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told a Senate hearing.
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said Tokyo understood Trump’s decision to cancel the Singapore summit, Kyodo News reported.
‘‘It’s meaningless to have talks that don’t achieve results.’’
United Nations Secretarygeneral Antonio Guterres said he was ‘‘deeply concerned’’ by the cancellation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia greeted the news ‘‘with regret, because we had very much counted on it being a significant step in sorting out the situation on the Korean peninsula’’. — Reuters /AP
SEOUL: North Korea followed through on a pledge to blow up tunnels at its nuclear test site on Thursday, North Korean state media reported, as part of steps that have reduced tension on the Korean Peninsula and raised the possibility of a summit with the United States.
North Korea has conducted all six of its nuclear tests at the Punggyeri site, which consists of tunnels dug beneath Mount Mantap in the northeast of the country.
A small group of international media selected by North Korea witnessed the demolition, which Pyongyang says is proof of its commitment to end nuclear testing.
The destruction of the site began with the blowing up and collapsing of a tunnel and an observation post.
North Korea’s staterun news agency KCNA reported there was no leak of radioactive materials or any adverse ecological impact on the surrounding environment.
‘‘Dismantling the nuclear test ground was done in such a way as to make all the tunnels of the test ground collapse by explosion and completely close the tunnel entrances, and at the same time, explode some guard facilities and observation posts on the site,’’ KCNA reported.
The South Korean Government welcomed the test site destruction by calling it ‘‘the first meaningful step to realise complete denuclearisation, which North Korea expressed’’.
The North Korean offer to scrap the test site has been seen as a major concession in months of easing tension with South Korea and the United States after decades of hostility.
North Korea announced in April it would suspend nuclear and missile tests and scrap the test site and instead pursue economic growth and peace.
A United Nations Secretarygeneral Antonio Guterres said yesterday it was unfortunate no international experts were on hand when North Korea blew up tunnels at its nuclear test site even as he welcomed Pyongyang’s reported action.