N. Korea talks are called off

A meeting in New York this week between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korea’s leading nuclear weapons negotiator has been called off, the State Department said Wednesday.

The meeting, which had been scheduled for Thursday, “will now take place at a later date,” Heather Nauert, a State Department spokeswoman, said in a written statement. “We will reconvene when our respective schedules permit.”

No reason was given for the decision, and the statement did not indicate which side requested it.

Also announced Wednesday, President Donald Trump will meet with President Vladimir Putin of Russia this weekend after all, the Kremlin said, but they will make it an abbreviated discussion in deference to their French hosts and hold off more detailed talks until another meeting later in the month.

It will be the first meeting between the U.S. and Russian presidents since they got together in Helsinki in July.