WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Friday (May 25) welcomed North Korea's response to his decision to call off a high-stakes summit next month, after Kim Jong Un's regime said it was still willing to talk "at any time."

"Very good news to receive the warm and productive statement from North Korea," Trump tweeted, a day after his shock move to cancel the talks over "hostility" from Pyongyang.

"We will soon see where it will lead, hopefully to long and enduring prosperity and peace. Only time (and talent) will tell!"

In a personal letter to Kim, Trump announced Thursday he would not go ahead with the Jun 12 summit in Singapore, following what the White House called a "trail of broken promises" by the North.

Trump blamed "open hostility" from the North Korean regime for his decision to call off the planned talks with Kim Jong Un, and warned Pyongyang against committing any "foolish or reckless acts."

But Pyongyang's reaction to the sudden U-turn has so far been conciliatory.

First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan called Trump's decision "unexpected" and "regrettable." But he left the door open for talks, saying officials were willing "to sit face-to-face at any time."

Just before Trump announced the cancellation of the meeting, North Korea declared it had "completely" dismantled its nuclear test site in the country's far northeast, in a carefully choreographed goodwill gesture ahead of the summit.

But the chances of success for the unprecedented face-to-face had recently been thrown into doubt as threats were traded by both sides.

Trump's announcement came a day after Pyongyang hardened its rhetoric, calling comments by Vice President Mike Pence "ignorant and stupid."

The decision blindsided treaty ally South Korea, which until now had brokered a remarkable detente between Washington and Pyongyang.

China, Pyongyang's sole major ally, urged the two foes to "show goodwill," while UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on the parties to keep talking, as did host Singapore, and Russia's President Vladimir Putin held out hope the talks would eventually take place.

Politically, Trump had invested heavily in the success of the planned summit. But as the date drew nearer, the gulf in expectations between the two sides became apparent.

Washington has made it clear it wants to see the "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization" of the North.

But Pyongyang has vowed to never give up its nuclear deterrent until no longer threatened by what it calls US aggression.</s>President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable on immigration policy at Morrelly Homeland Security Center, Wednesday, May 23, 2018, in Bethpage, N.Y. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) ORG XMIT: NYEV135

WASHINGTON — President Trump indicated Thursday that North Korea may be permitted to give up its nuclear weapons in phases in exchange for relief from sanctions, but said such an approach would have to be “rapid.”

“A phased-in [approach] may need to be a little bit necessary,” Trump said in an interview with Fox & Friends that aired Thursday. It “would have to be a rapid phase-in.”

Trump’s remarks come as U.S. and North Korean leaders are negotiating the outlines of a summit scheduled for June 12 in Singapore between Trump and Kim Jong Un. They offer insight into what the Trump administration is demanding from Pyongyang.

A phased-in denuclearization would represent a departure from the so-called “Libyan model” of requiring a country to dismantle its nuclear capability up front. Trump hinted at the possibility of a staged-approach in remarks in the Oval Office on Tuesday.

“All in one would be nice, I can tell you,” the president said then. “Does it have to be? I don’t think I want to totally commit myself.

“You know, you do have some physical reasons that it may not be able to do exactly that,” the president continued. “So for physical reasons, over a very short period of time. Essentially, that would be all in one.”

Trump offered little indication in the interview Thursday whether the meeting with Kim will take place. He appeared more pessimistic in his remarks earlier in the week.

The president made the remarks in an interview on Fox & Friends that was taped shortly after he spoke at a round table Wednesday focused on the MS-13 gang. The interview was far less freewheeling than the live, call-in interview he gave to the program in April.

Trump also said that the nation's immigration system is "corrupt," and vowed to oppose any legislation on the issue that doesn't include funding for his proposed wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.

"It’s time to get the whole package, Trump said. "The whole system is corrupt. It’s horrible. "

Trump also applauded the NFL for a recent policy change requiring players to stand for the national anthem or remain in their locker room. And he took a swipe at former FBI director James Comey, who the president fired last year.

"Some of the people at the top were rotten apples," the president said of the FBI, "and James Comey was one of them."</s>World politics are questionable with Donald Trump withdrawing from planned talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un next month, the implications and strategy to the cancellation and if it affects Australian relations to North Korean neighbour China, Dr Keith Suter has analysed the situation for us and explains the complexity.

http://www.global-directions.com/

 Dr Suter is an experienced, professional and awarded presenter renowned for explaining complex global and business issues in a way his audiences can digest and understand. He is in demand as an MC and conference facilitator. Keith’s tailored keynotes, workshops, facilitated sessions are entertaining, highly compelling and always captivating.</s>SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - South Korean President Moon Jae-in held a surprise meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday to ensure a summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump goes off successfully, South Korean officials said.

It was the clearest sign yet that the on-again off-again summit between Trump and Kim is likely to be held as initially agreed, in Singapore on June 12.

The unannounced meeting at the Panmunjom border village between Moon and Kim came a month after they held the first inter-Korean summit in more than a decade at the same venue and declared they would toward a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.

“The two leaders candidly exchanged views about making the North Korea-U.S. summit a successful one and about implementing the Panmunjom Declaration,” South Korea’s presidential spokesman said in a statement.

Moon, who returned to Seoul earlier this week after a meeting with Trump, will announce details of the meeting with Kim on Sunday morning.

Trump said on Friday that Washington was having “productive talks” with Pyongyang about reinstating the June 12 meeting, just a day after cancelling it.

Politico magazine reported that an advance team of 30 White House and State Department officials was preparing to leave for Singapore later this weekend.

Reuters reported earlier this week the team was scheduled to discuss the agenda and logistics for the summit with North Korean officials. The delegation was to include White House Deputy Chief of Staff Joseph Hagin and deputy national security adviser Mira Ricardel, U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Trump said in a Twitter post late on Friday: “We are having very productive talks about reinstating the Summit which, if it does happen, will likely remain in Singapore on the same date, June 12th., and, if necessary, will be extended beyond that date.”

Trump had earlier indicated the summit could be salvaged after welcoming a conciliatory statement from North Korea saying it remained open to talks.

“It was a very nice statement they put out,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We’ll see what happens - it could even be the 12th.”

“We’re talking to them now. They very much want to do it. We’d like to do it,” he said.

The comments came just a day after Trump canceled the meeting, citing Pyongyang’s “open hostility.”

After years of tension over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program, Kim and Trump agreed this month to hold what would be the first meeting between a serving U.S. president and a North Korean leader. The plan followed months of war threats and insults between the leaders over North Korea’s development of missiles capable of reaching the United States.

Trump scrapped the meeting in a letter to Kim on Thursday after repeated threats by North Korea to pull out over what it saw as confrontational remarks by U.S. officials demanding unilateral disarmament. Trump cited North Korean hostility in cancelling the summit.

In Pyongyang, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan said North Korea’s criticisms had been a reaction to American rhetoric and that current antagonism showed “the urgent necessity” for the summit.

He said North Korea regretted Trump’s decision to cancel and remained open to resolving issues “regardless of ways, at any time.”

Kim Kye Gwan said North Korea had appreciated Trump having made the bold decision to work toward a summit.

“We even inwardly hoped that what is called ‘Trump formula’ would help clear both sides of their worries and comply with the requirements of our side and would be a wise way of substantial effect for settling the issue,” he said.

North Korea also went ahead with a plan to destroy its only known nuclear site on Thursday, the most concrete action yet since pledging to cease all nuclear and long-range missile tests last month.

Dozens of international journalists left North Korea on Saturday after observing the demolition of the underground tunnels in Punggye-ri, where all of the North’s six nuclear tests were conducted including its latest and largest in September.

Trump’s latest about-face sent officials scrambling in Washington. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters diplomats were “still at work” and said Trump had just sent a note out on the summit, which could be back on “if our diplomats can pull it off.”

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Katina Adams declined to give details of any diplomatic contacts but said: “As the president said in his letter to Chairman Kim, dialogue between the two is the only dialogue that matters. If North Korea is serious, then we look forward to hearing from them at the highest levels.”

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters Trump did not want a meeting that was “just a political stunt.”

“He wants to get something that’s a long-lasting and an actual real solution. And if they are ready to do that then ... we’re certainly ready to have those conversations,” she said.</s>It wasn't so long ago that all seemed strangely rosy between the United States and North Korea. After exchanging threats, President Trump and Kim Jong-un agreed to meet in Singapore to discuss a peace agreement. The former announced he would dismantle a nuclear test site, which Trump called a "very smart and gracious gesture." Three American detainees were returned to the United States. Republicans called for their president to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The White House released a coin to commemorate the historic occasion. What could possibly go wrong?

As it turned out, just about everything. After a week of escalating tensions following an abrupt reversal of tone from North Korea, President Trump on Thursday sent a letter to Kim Jong-un canceling the summit.

"Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting," Trump wrote.



The relationship began to deteriorate last week, when North Korea released a memo explaining that the nation was not willing to denuclearize in exchange for sanctions relief. The memo also described a "feeling of repugnance" toward National Security Adviser John Bolton, who had repeatedly called for North Korea to denuclearize entirely, citing the agreement the United States reached with Libya in 2003.



Several outlets reported that Trump was angered and confused by the news, and that the president spent the weekend discussing with aides whether it might not be a good idea to go through with the summit at all. The New York Times noted the president was "increasingly concerned" the meeting could be a "political embarrassment," while CNN reported that "some of the president's advisers privately say the chances of the talks occurring grew slimmer."



On Monday, Vice President Mike Pence appeared on Fox News to discuss the issue, noting that North Korea could end up like Libya if a deal is not struck.

"There was some talk about the Libyan model last week, and you know, as the president made clear, this will only end like the Libyan model ended if Kim Jong Un doesn't make a deal," Pence said. When it was mentioned that this could be construed as a threat, Pence said: "Well, I think it's more of a fact."



After agreeing to denuclearize in 2003, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was killed by the United States and its allies in 2011. Bolton had repeatedly called for a similar agreement with North Korea, despite North Korea having fiercely criticized Libya for agreeing to denuclearize after Gaddafi's death.



Trump met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Washington the following day to discuss the summit, but it doesn't appear Moon was able to convince the president that North Korea would be receptive to the administration's demands. Speaking to reporters with the South Korean leader at his side, Trump publicly expressed doubt the meeting would take place. "It may not work out for June 12th," Trump said. "If it doesn't happen, maybe it will happen later."



On Thursday morning, Kim made good on his promise to dismantle the site, staging a demolition spectacle in front of a group of international reporters. Several components of the site Punggye-ri in northern North Korea were destroyed with explosives, and although some hailed this as a major step toward denuclearization, others equated the gesture to nothing more than a means of destroying evidence. "The North Koreans have conducted all these tests here, every single weapons test, so if they let experts in to look at these tunnels before they let anyone else in, that would be potentially for us an intelligence boon," Bruce Bechtol, a political science professor who has written several books on North Korea, told CNN. Journalists who attempted to bring in equipment to measure the radiation of the wreckage had their tools confiscated.



But more consequential than the demolition was a statement released the same morning by North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui, who was none too pleased with the comments made earlier in the week by Vice President Pence. "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," Choe said. "In case the U.S. offends against our good will and clings to unlawful and outrageous acts, I will put forward a suggestion to our supreme leadership for reconsidering the D.P.R.K.-U.S. summit."



Choe also suggested that North Korea is ready to go to war with the United States if the June 12th meeting should fall through. "Whether the U.S. will meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown is entirely dependent upon the decision and behavior of the United States.” 



Now that meeting has fallen through, and Trump is once again touting America's nuclear capabilities. "You talk about your nuclear capabilities," Trump wrote, "but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used."</s>U.S. President Donald Trump has cancelled next month’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

In a letter to Kim released Thursday morning, Trump said the face-to-face meeting, set to take place on June 12 in Singapore, was “inappropriate” to have “at this time.”

“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.

North Korea lashed out at the U.S. Thursday after Vice President Mike Pence repeated Trump’s Libya threat to Pyongyang – a reference to the 2011 U.S.-backed overthrow and murder of Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi.

In a statement from North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui, Pyongyang also protested U.S. demands that it unilaterally denuclearize without concession.

“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.”

Pence’s remark came after Trump, attempting to distance himself from White House National Security Advisor John Bolton, confused Bolton’s reference to the Libyan disarmament of 2003 with the NATO campaign against the country in 2011.

“The model, if you look at that model with Gaddafi, that was a total decimation. We went in there to beat them,” Trump told reporters. “Now, that model would take place if we don’t make a deal, most likely.”

Bolton’s initial comments on the “Libya model” last week began the souring relations that led to the summit’s cancellation.

North Korea’s First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Kye Gwan similarly accused Bolton last Wednesday of endangering the current détente with “unbridled remarks.”

“World knows too well that our country is neither Libya nor Iraq which have met miserable fate. It is absolutely absurd to dare compare the DPRK, a nuclear weapon state, to Libya which had been at the initial stage of nuclear development,” Gwan wrote. “We shed light on the quality of Bolton already in the past, and we do not hide our feeling of repugnance towards him.”

Trump’s Thursday letter, which thanked North Korea for releasing three American hostages, also made an ominous reference to the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

“You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used,” Trump wrote.

The president also left room open for the meeting to take place at another date and time.

“If you change your mind having to do with this most important summit, please do not hesitate to call me or write,” Trump wrote.

The decision reportedly came as a surprise to some administration officials, who felt North Korea’s comments were merely posturing and that Kim still was expected to attend.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, however, said North Korea failed to respond when reached to discuss logistics for the summit.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who was unaware of the plan to cancel, called an emergency meeting in Seoul at around midnight.

Reports claimed last week that the president became uneasy about the upcoming summit after North Korea expressed disagreement with U.S. demands.

News of the cancellation comes just hours after Pyongyang announced the closure of its nuclear test site at Punggye-ri.

Speaking in the Oval Office Thursday, Trump said the U.S. military was ready “if necessary” if conditions with North Korea continued to deteriorate.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump canceling his planned summit with North Korea (all times local):

A Republican senator often critical of Donald Trump says the president “made the right call” in canceling a summit with North Korea’s leader.

Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska says Kim Jong Un is a “murderous despot and habitual liar.” Sasse is often critical of Trump but is siding with the president on his decision Thursday to pull out of the summit that had been planned for June 12 in Singapore.

Trump cited recent aggressive statements from Kim’s government for his decision to cancel the meeting.

Sasse adds in a statement that if North Korea wants diplomacy, “it should know that half-measures and spin about its nuclear program won’t cut it.”

Sasse is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee,

The U.N. chief says he is “deeply concerned” by the cancellation of the planned summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un.

Antonio Guterres told an audience at the University of Geneva on Thursday that he was urging the parties to keep working “to find a path to the peaceful and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

Guterres’ comments came as he laid out his disarmament agenda, warning that nuclear agreements between states have been threatened like never before.

Trump announced Thursday that he was canceling the June 12 summit in Singapore with Kim following hostile comments. Overnight, Kim’s government threatened nuclear confrontation and called Vice President Mike Pence a “political dummy.”

House Speaker Paul Ryan says achieving a peaceful resolution to the nuclear standoff on the Korean Peninsula will require “a much greater degree of seriousness” from Kim Jong Un.

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he has canceled a June 12 summit in Singapore with the North Korean leader, citing hostile comments from Kim. Overnight, Kim’s government threatened nuclear confrontation and called Vice President Mike Pence a “political dummy.”

Ryan says in a statement Thursday that Kim’s government has long given ample reason to question its commitment to stability.

The Republican says that, until a peaceful resolution is achieved, Congress has provided “significant tools” to hold North Korea accountable.

Ryan says the U.S. must continue the “maximum pressure” campaign that Trump and others say brought North Korea to the table in the first place.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says North Korea did not respond to repeated requests from U.S. officials to discuss logistics for the now-canceled summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Pompeo told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday that the lack of response was an additional reason for Trump’s decision to call off the meeting. Trump cited recent bellicose comments from the North in a letter to Kim released by the White House.

Pompeo says: “We had received no response to our inquiries from them.”

Pompeo says the North’s attitude changed markedly since he returned from a trip to Pyongyang earlier this month, when he met with Kim and secured the release of three American prisoners being held there.

A senior Democratic senator says President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from a planned summit with North Korea shows the consequence of his failure to prepare properly.

Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey said Thursday that the withdrawal shows “the art of diplomacy is a lot harder than the art of the deal.”

The top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee says it’s “pretty amazing” that Trump’s Republican administration would be shocked that North Korea “is acting as North Korea might very well normally act.”

He adds: “I’m not sure that constantly quoting the Libya model is the diplomatic way to try to get to the results that we seek in North Korea because that didn’t work out too well for Gadhafi.”

Menendez was speaking Thursday at a committee hearing attended by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

President Donald Trump says North Korea’s leader should not “hesitate to call me or write” if he changes his mind about their now-canceled summit.

Trump announced Thursday that he had canceled a summit planned with Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12.

Trump released a letter to Kim saying his decision was based on “the tremendous anger and open hostility” in Kim’s most recent statement. Trump did not explain what triggered his decision.

But in a statement, the North Korean government had referred to Vice President Mike Pence as a “political dummy” and said it is just as ready to meet in a nuclear confrontation as at the negotiating table.

But Trump tells Kim “please do not hesitate to call me or write” should he change his mind about a one-on-one meeting.

President Donald Trump is telling North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in a letter that the world is losing a “great opportunity for lasting peace and great prosperity and wealth” now that their summit has been canceled.

Trump on Thursday canceled the planned June 12 summit in Singapore with Kim, citing the “tremendous anger and open hostility” in a recent statement from North Korea.

In the statement, the North Korean government referred to Vice President Mike Pence as a “political dummy” and said it is just as ready to meet in a nuclear confrontation as at the negotiating table.

Trump says in the letter: “This missed opportunity is a truly sad moment in history.”

President Donald Trump is canceling the planned June 12 summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, citing the “tremendous anger and open hostility” in a recent statement from North Korea.

Trump says in a letter to Kim released Thursday by the White House that based on the statement, he felt it was “inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting.”

The president says the North Koreans talk about their nuclear capabilities, “but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used.”</s>President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to cancel his highly anticipated June 12 meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could renew tensions between the two capitals and ultimately damage America’s credibility in Asia, experts warned Thursday.

“Trump is risking a return to the escalatory dynamic that characterized 2017,” Kelsey Davenport, director of nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association, said in a phone interview on Thursday. “The language he used in his letter was over the top and risks closing the door on future talks.”

Trump wrote in a letter to Kim Thursday that he is canceling the meeting that had been scheduled for the two leaders in Singapore because of the “tremendous anger and open hostility” he said Kim had displayed.

“The world, and North Korea in particular, has lost a great opportunity for lasting peace and great prosperity and wealth,” Trump wrote. “This missed opportunity is a truly sad moment in history.”

He also delivered a thinly veiled threat against the North Korean regime, whose Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui warned Thursday that the “behavior of the United States” will determine if the two countries will meet “at a meeting room or encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown.”

“You talk about your nuclear capabilities,” Trump wrote, “but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used.” That jab echoed a taunt Trump made at Kim on Jan. 2, when he boasted that his nuclear button is “much bigger and more powerful” than Kim’s.

Davenport said that such nuclear weapon “measuring contests” are unnecessary. “They’re highly provocative and endanger the chances of future diplomacy,” she added.

Trump’s decision to pull out of the meeting came the same day North Korea allowed international journalists to witness what they said was the destruction of its Punggye-ri nuclear test site.

Trump and Kim spent much of 2017 trading personal insults and threats. But ahead of the Winter Olympics this year, a diplomatic push by South Korean President Moon Jae-In de-escalated tensions on the peninsula and led to some major breakthroughs, including a historic meeting between Moon and Kim in South Korea in April.

In March, Trump announced that a plan to meet with Kim, in what would be an unprecedented summit between the U.S. and North Korean leaders. Since then, he has routinely increased expectations for the meeting and suggested that he should win the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in getting the North Koreans to the negotiating table.

This delicate diplomacy had seemed in jeopardy in recent days after the North Korean capitol threatened to call off the meeting over routine military exercises by the U.S. and South Korea, and over comments made in April by John Bolton, Trump’s hawkish national security adviser, suggesting that the administration would seek regime change.

Bolton had suggested the administration would follow the “Libya model of 2003, 2004” in its approach to denuclearizing the peninsula; Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi abandoned his nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief and normalized relations with the West, but was killed in 2011 during a U.S.-backed uprising. Vice President Mike Pence made similar comments on Fox News earlier this week, suggesting North Korean leadership could end up like Gaddafi if the country does not denuclearize. North Korea responded Thursday by calling Pence’s remarks “ignorant and stupid.”

On Tuesday, Moon met with Trump to discuss strategy on the peninsula and to attempt to salvage the meeting, which Trump had suggested he could cancel or delay.

A number of lawmakers in the U.S. have also been encouraging Trump to continue on the path of diplomacy with Kim. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) told Mic earlier this week that the mere act of holding a meeting with North Korea “would be a win.”

In a follow-up interview on Thursday, Khanna called Trump’s decision to cancel the summit “disappointing.” Khanna met with Trump in the Oval Office a few weeks ago to convey bipartisan support for the summit. He said that the president appeared to be looking forward to the meeting. Khanna added that he isn’t sure what changed for the president since then, but expressed concern that he had given into the more hawkish voices in his administration and feared that U.S. foreign policy is being made “in reaction to personal insults or taunts.”

“I think there is a deal to be made,” Khanna said of the effort to denuclearize the Korean peninsula. “The president has called himself a great dealmaker — he ought to go and make a great deal.”

Canceling the meeting could cause a return to last year’s heightened tensions — and risks of a confrontation between the U.S. and North Korea, Khanna said. But he also expressed confidence that Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, along with Secretary of Defense James Mattis could be “sober” voices in the administration.

“My hope is that those voices will prevail,” Khanna said.

It remains to be seen how North Korea will react to Trump’s cancelation, but the president warned in a press conference Thursday that America’s military would be “ready if necessary.” He also said that “our very strong sanctions” and “maximum pressure campaign” would continue in North Korea, but left open the possibility that the meeting could still take place at some point.

South Korea appeared to be taken by surprise by Trump’s move, with the country’s leadership calling an emergency late night meeting on Thursday. A spokesperson for Moon told reporters that “we are trying to figure out what President Trump’s intention is and the exact meaning of it.”

According to Davenport, Trump’s move could jeopardize South Korea’s diplomatic outreach.

“It certainly risks rupturing the inter-Korean process, which I think has brought greater stability to the region and is a very promising avenue to further stabilize the relationship,” Davenport said.

Further, Catherine Killough, the Roger L. Hale fellow at Ploughshares Fund who focuses on North Korea’s nuclear program, called Trump’s decision to cancel the summit without coordinating the move with South Korea — and to do so shortly after meeting with Moon — “reckless and condescending.”

“Going forward, Trump needs to recover what little credibility the U.S. has left with its allies,” Killough said in an interview on Thursday.

Killough said the cancellation doesn’t bring us “quite back to the ‘fire and fury’ days,” because the possibility for a future summit remains open — referring to Trump’s infamous threat in August that Kim would be met with “fire, fury and, frankly, power, the likes of which this world has never seen before” if he continued his nuclear provocations.

“Pragmatically speaking, this is exactly what diplomacy looks like,” Killough said. “Push and pull until both sides understand what is realistically possible to achieve.”

Still, Davenport said, Trump’s actions may have made dialogue between the U.S. and North Korea more challenging going forward.

“There’s a pattern to Trump’s actions — he destroys a process without a plan B in place,” Davenport said. “It will be critical for the Trump administration to try to maintain its diplomatic channels with North Korea because a return to the ‘fire and fury’ days would not benefit [either country].”

“But Trump certainly made that more difficult,” she added.</s>Summit or not, giant gulf separates US-NKorea on nukes

WASHINGTON (AP) — Even if conciliatory rhetoric revives U.S.-North Korea summit plans, President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un are still left with the gaping disconnect over what a deal on North Korea's nukes would look like.

Observers of the soap opera-style Trump-Kim summit drama that has played out this week could be forgiven for thinking that a fragile courtship is underway, where the tenor of each side's statements will determine whether the two can agree to sit down together.

But lying at the root of the North's recent barrage of negative rhetoric that prompted Trump to cancel the summit is a fundamental difference of views on the path to denuclearization. Reconciling those views may determine not just the success of any future meeting but whether a summit is in fact feasible.

"You could look at this as trash talking in anticipation of the big game," said Christopher Hill, the lead U.S. negotiator with North Korea under the George W. Bush administration. "Frankly speaking, I think it's more serious."

Trump's letter to Kim on Thursday blamed "tremendous anger and open hostility" by Pyongyang for derailing the June 12 meeting in Singapore. Trump changed his tune after North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan responded not with more threats but qualified praise of the president and openness for talks. Trump said Friday that the two sides were talking about putting the summit back on track, possibly on the originally planned date.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea on Saturday expressed cautious relief about the revived talks for a summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un following a whirlwind 24 hours that saw Trump canceling the highly-anticipated meeting before saying it's potentially back on.

The statement by Seoul's presidential office came hours after Trump welcomed North Korea's conciliatory response to his Thursday letter withdrawing from the summit with Kim and said that the meeting might be getting back on track. Trump later on Saturday tweeted that the summit, if it does happen, will likely take place on June 12 in Singapore as originally planned.

"We see it as fortunate that the embers of dialogue between North Korea and the United States weren't fully extinguished and are coming alive again," Seoul's presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said in a statement. "We are carefully watching the developments."

South Korea, which brokered the talks between Washington and Pyongyang, was caught off guard by Trump's abrupt cancellation of the summit citing hostility in recent North Korean comments. South Korean President Moon Jae-said Trump's decision left him "perplexed" and was "very regrettable." He urged Washington and Pyongyang to resolve their differences through "more direct and closer dialogue between their leaders."

Moon and Kim held a historic summit in April where they announced vague aspirations for a nuclear-free peninsula and permanent peace, which Seoul has tried to sell as a meaningful breakthrough to set up the summit with Trump.

Giuliani says White House wants briefing on classified info

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's legal team wants a briefing on the classified information shared with lawmakers about the origins of the FBI investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election. And they may take it to the Justice Department as part of an effort to scuttle the ongoing special counsel probe.

Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump's attorneys, told The Associated Press on Friday that the White House hopes to get a readout of the information next week, particularly about the use of a longtime government informant who approached members of Trump's campaign in a possible bid to glean intelligence on Russian efforts to sway the election.

Trump has made unproven claims of FBI misconduct and political bias and has denounced the asset as "a spy."

BEIJING (AP) — President Donald Trump's abrupt withdrawal from his planned summit with North Korea raises the stakes for China to show that it can steer the North toward easing tensions over its nuclear program. But despite a recent warming in ties, Beijing's influence over its neighbor may be overstated.

Trump's cancellation of the June 12 meeting in Singapore with Kim Jong Un would appear to make the North Korean leader more reliant on China. Kim had only weeks earlier been sipping tea and strolling through seaside gardens in the port of Dalian with Chinese President Xi Jinping on a surprise trip to China that seemed designed to project Beijing's closeness with the North.

Trump, who now suggests there's still a chance of holding a summit, blamed Kim's trip to China for creating an unwelcome "change in attitude" by the North Korean leader, a view shared by some observers. "The winner at this moment is Chinese President Xi Jinping," wrote retired Navy Adm. James Stavridis, dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, in a commentary.

But Trump might have misjudged Kim's attitude and China's role, said Cheng Xiaohe, an expert at Renmin University's School of International Studies in Beijing.

"China is not a disruptive element," Cheng said. He said Xi's meeting with Kim was meant to boost the inexperienced and isolated North Korean leader's confidence in dealing with complex diplomacy.

No rain in sight: Fire fears force land closures in Arizona

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Dry pine needles and dead wood snapped under fire prevention officer Matt Engbring's boots as he hiked a half-mile into the woods in search of a makeshift campsite that had served as one man's home until this week when the area was closed because of the escalating threat of massive wildfires.

Engbring walked past small ravines where wind quickly could carry embers and by the charred remains of a campfire, finally reaching the spot where John Dobson had been living among ponderosa pines in Arizona's Coconino National Forest.

He spotted Dobson earlier as he was leaving the forest with his bicycle and issued a warning that he'll likely repeat over the busy Memorial Day weekend as tourists flock to Arizona's cooler mountainous areas to hike, bike, camp and fish.

"The area is closed now, and I can't allow you to go back in," he said.

Many parts of the West are dealing with drought, but nowhere else has more state and federal land been closed to recreation than in Arizona where conditions are ripe for large-scale wildfires. Portions of the Apache-Sitgreaves, Coconino, Kaibab and Tonto national forests are closed because the dry vegetation quickly can go up in flames, firefighters would have a hard time stopping it, and homes and water resources are at risk.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior Environmental Protection Agency officials have been working closely with a conservative group that dismisses climate change to rally like-minded people for public hearings on science and global warming. Recently released emails show they also recruited help to counter negative news coverage and tout Administrator Scott Pruitt's stewardship of the agency.

John Konkus, EPA's deputy associate administrator for public affairs, repeatedly reached out to senior staffers at the Heartland Institute. Emails show Konkus and the Heartland Institute mustering scores of potential invitees known for rejecting scientific warnings of man-made climate-change.

The emails were released after a lawsuit by environmental groups under the Freedom of Information Act.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has long made immigration a top priority. He has spent recent weeks publicly hammering Congress to crack down on "legal loopholes" he says allow criminals to enter the country illegally.

But behind the scenes, Trump has shown little interest in jumping into an intensifying Capitol Hill debate over immigration legislation that many believe is unlikely to ever reach his desk.

House Republicans — from both the right and the center — drive an effort to force votes on immigration proposals. That includes legislation that would provide young "Dreamer" immigrants a path to legal status and beef up border security, but may fall short of funding Trump's promised wall along the southern border.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — An aging North Korean nuclear strategist involved in now-dormant disarmament deals. His former interpreter in international negotiations who is now North Korea's highest-ranking female diplomat.

Kim Kye Gwan and Choe Son Hui are among the best-known North Korean officials after leader Kim Jong Un and his family members. They are in the news again now after their recent back-to-back comments about the United States were blamed for President Donald Trump's abrupt cancellation on Thursday of a much-anticipated summit with Kim Jong Un. On Friday, Trump said the two sides were working to put the meeting back on track.

A look at who the officials are and how their comments led Trump to spike the summit planned for June 12 in Singapore:

DUBLIN (AP) — Official counting began Saturday in Ireland's historic abortion rights referendum, with two exit polls predicting an overwhelming victory for those seeking to end the country's strict ban.

The Irish Times and RTE television exit polls suggest the Irish people have voted overwhelmingly to repeal a 1983 constitutional amendment that requires authorities to treat a fetus and its mother as equals under the law. That effectively bans abortions, and currently, terminations are only allowed when a woman's life is at risk.

The exit polls are predictions only, with official results expected to be announced Saturday afternoon. Paper ballots must be counted and tallied.

If the projected numbers hold up, the referendum would be a landmark in Irish women's fight for abortion rights and a key turning point for a largely Catholic nation that has seen a wave of liberalization in recent years. It would also likely end the need for thousands of Irish women to travel abroad — mostly to neighboring Britain — for abortions.

Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who campaigned for repeal, did not claim victory based on the exit polls but seemed very confident late Friday night.

MIAMI (AP) — A storm moving slowly through the Caribbean Sea is threatening to bring heavy rainfall, mudslides, and flash floods to parts of Mexico, Cuba, Florida and the U.S. Gulf Coast this weekend.

Subtropical Storm Alberto — the first named storm of the 2018 hurricane season — was roiling parts of coastal Mexico and Cuba with rip currents and dangerous surf on Saturday. Both countries issued tropical storm watches for portions of their coastlines, with rain totals in some isolated areas of up to 25 inches.

U.S. forecasters followed suit by issuing a tropical storm watch for parts of the Gulf Coast from the Florida Panhandle southwest of Tallahassee to the New Orleans metropolitan area.

At 5 a.m. EDT, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Alberto was moving north-northeastward toward the Yucatan Channel and was centered about 95 miles (105 kilometers) southeast of Cozumel, Mexico. Its top sustained winds were 40 mph (65 kph). A gradual strengthening was expected through the weekend as it moves north.

The U.S. was expected to start feeling Alberto's effects Saturday. The hurricane center said up to 12 inches of rain was possible across the Florida Keys and southern and southwestern Florida. Residents in the storm's expected path were advised to monitor the storm's progress.</s>Trump’s hyped meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un was abruptly canceled, and Twitter can’t stop joking about the failure. See the best tweets and memes about that Nobel Peace Prize he’s not getting.

Whomp whomp. President Donald Trump‘s highly-anticipated (by him) summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was abruptly canceled before it was slated to occur on June 12 in Singapore. In a bizarrely worded open letter to the dictator, Trump said that the summit would no longer be happening because of his apparent “tremendous anger and open hostility” in a recent statement. “I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting.” The rest of Trump’s letter read like someone breaking up with their SO before they could break up with them.

The tweets and memes started coming in as soon as the letter hit Twitter, with many mocking Trump’s previous assertion that the summit would win him the Nobel Peace Prize. Or at least, as he claimed “many people” thought he should get it. Yeah, that’s not happening. Comedian Albert Brooks tweeted, “Breaking news: Trump cancels meeting with North Korea. Nobel committee says he still might get the batshit crazy award.” Another funny guy tweeted, “Sadly, I am going to have to turn down the Nobel Peace Prize, which many people have said I was Sure To Win…It’s a very boring prize anyway.” Another person tweeted a stock photo of a group of people laughing, joking that they were the Nobel Prize committee reacting to Trump’s news.

Others poked fun at Trump’s letter itself. Someone straight up tweeted out the infamous letter from the Zodiac Killer, claiming it was Trump’s. Dude — we all know that’s Ted Cruz‘s territory. Another person wrote out a letter in crayon, riddled with typos: “Deer Kim Jong Kardashian. You are very very mean. I want a Nobel prise and you ruined it! I hate you!” Honestly, they’re not far off.
U.S. President Donald Trump tweets that "very productive talks" are being held with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on reinstating the June 12 Singapore summit, which he had cancelled Thursday.