President Donald Trump says the U.S. will know by next week whether his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will be held on June 12 in Singapore as scheduled.

"It could very well be June 12th," Trump said Wednesday. "If we go, it'll be a great thing for North Korea."

North Korea has indicated it might call off the meeting due to disagreements on conditions by the United States for unilateral denuclearization.

Trump on Tuesday, during a meeting with visiting South Korean President Moon Jae-in, said the summit might not be held next month.

"If it doesn't happen, maybe it will happen later," Trump said.

The president said, "There are certain conditions that we want. I think we will get those conditions."

Asked about the conditions, Trump replied, "I'd rather not say." But he stated that the denuclearization of North Korea "must take place."

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has twice met with Kim in Pyongyang in preparation for the Singapore summit, said Wednesday, "Our posture will not change until we see credible steps taken toward the complete, verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula."</s>President Donald Trump waves as he finishes speaking to the media, while walking to the Marine One helicopter Friday, May 25, 2018, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington. Trump is traveling to Annapolis, Md., to address the U.S. Naval Academy graduation ceremonies.(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) ORG XMIT: DCJM106

WASHINGTON — President Trump touted his administration's push to increase military spending in a commencement address at the Naval Academy on Friday, telling graduating midshipmen that the U.S. had regained its stride on the world stage.

"America is back," Trump told the sea of graduates sitting side by side in blue and white dress uniforms. "We are witnessing the great reawakening of the American spirit and of American might."

Trump's address focused heavily on military investment, including $700 billion that Congress approved this year. That money will be used in part, Trump said, to grow the U.S. fleet closer to his goal of 355 ships, up from the current count of about 280.

The president blamed "cynics and critics" for trying to "tear down" the United States. And he said that the U.S. had regained a position of strength that he characterized as being lost before his election.

"In case you haven’t noticed, we have become a lot stronger lately," Trump said. "We are not going to apologize for America. We are going to stand up for America."

The president did not specifically discuss two regions of the world where U.S. foreign policy has shifted recently: the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula.

Following through on a campaign promise, Trump withdrew the U.S. from a multi-nation deal with Iran earlier this month that was intended to limit that country's nuclear ambitions.

Trump's remarks, meanwhile, followed a wild 24 hours of diplomacy in East Asia. Leaving the White House en route to the Naval Academy, the president said the U.S. is talking to North Korea about trying to revive a nuclear summit next month. Trump pulled the U.S. out of that summit a day earlier, citing belligerent rhetoric by Kim Jong Un.

The outcome of those discussions could have an impact on the 1,042-midshipmen class that graduated Friday. Trump repeatedly warned Thursday the U.S. military would be ready if Kim reacted "foolishly" and the region returned to heightened tensions.

"The best way to prevent war, is to be fully prepared for war," Trump said.

The address was Trump's first at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., and it continued a tradition dating back to Ulysses S. Grant of presidents laying out a military vision to the midshipmen. The commencement, attended by 30,000 people, was filled with the pomp and tradition of a military ceremony, including a flyover by the Navy's Blue Angels.

"You are now leaders in the most powerful and righteous force on the face of the planet," Trump said. "You will bring comfort to our friends and you will strike fear into the hearts of our enemies."</s>President Donald Trump canceled his planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that had been scheduled for June 12 in Singapore, citing “tremendous anger and open hostility” in recent statements from Pyongyang.

Trump’s decision was communicated Thursday in a letter to Kim released by the White House.

North Korea hardened its rhetoric toward the U.S. earlier Thursday, warning it was ready for a “nuclear-to-nuclear” showdown if the U.S. didn’t follow through on the summit.

“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.

Stocks turned down sharply as the letter was released, with the S&P 500 index down 0.5 percent at 10:04 a.m. New York time.

With the summit abandoned — at least temporarily — the next steps are unclear. Trump has said that if the June 12 meeting were to fall through, the U.S. would continue exerting maximum economic pressure on Kim and his regime.

The highly anticipated summit had been cast by the White House as an opportunity to stave off a military conflict with North Korea and showcase Trump’s ability to make progress where his predecessors had struggled. The president has openly entertained the idea that he could have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize had the meeting led to a peace agreement between North Korea and the U.S. and South Korea. The countries are technically still at war.

But Trump ultimately ran into the same diplomatic quandary that has flummoxed U.S. presidents for the past 25 years: the inability to persuade a stubborn regime to give up a nuclear program that it regards as key to its survival.

The timing of the president’s letter may be an additional embarrassment to North Korea, as the country made a show of demolishing its main nuclear-weapons test site earlier on Thursday before a select group of foreign journalists.

The exercise was portrayed as the destruction of tunnels used for all six of the isolated nation’s nuclear tests, but there was no independent verification that the site was disabled. Arms control experts say the demolition wouldn’t impede Kim’s regime from further weapons development.

Trump agreed to meet Kim after the two leaders spent most of 2017 exchanging increasingly hostile and bellicose barbs. Seoul led the effort at detente with Pyongyang that led to the two countries competing together at the Winter Olympics.

In March, South Korean officials visited the White House to deliver a message directly from Kim, expressing openness to discuss denuclearization. Over the Easter holiday, Trump secretly dispatched Mike Pompeo, then the CIA director and now the secretary of State, to Pyongyang to lay groundwork for the summit. Trump announced on Twitter May 10 that the meeting would be scheduled for June 12 in Singapore.

Pompeo made another trip to Pyongyang earlier this month where he secured the release of three Korean-Americans Kim’s regime had detained.

With talks on the horizon, Trump shifted toward praising the North Korean dictator in recent months. Trump referred to Kim as “gracious” and “honorable,” and thanked him for releasing the three Americans.

But comments from his National Security Adviser, John Bolton, and others in the administration appeared to throw a wrench in the arrangements. Bolton drew the ire of the North Korean government for saying that the country’s nuclear disarmament should follow the “Libya model” embraced by dictator Muammar Qaddafi, who was later overthrown and killed in a U.S.-backed uprising.

The North Korean regime is acutely aware of Qaddafi’s history, and insisted that its country should be regarded not as seeking to develop nuclear weapons but as a nuclear power in its own right.</s>President Trump said Thursday it's still "possible" a June 12 meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un takes place, despite telling the leader of the rogue regime the U.S. was pulling out of the summit earlier in the day.

“Hopefully, everything is going to work out well with North Korea. A lot of things can happen, including the fact that perhaps … it's possible that the existing summit could take place or a summit at some later date,” Trump said prior to a bill signing ceremony at the White House. “Nobody should be anxious. We have to get it right.”

The president wrote in an open letter to Kim on Thursday that he had decided to cancel the June 12 meeting in Singapore due to the “tremendous anger and open hostility” displayed by Pyongyang.

[READ: Trump's letter to Kim Jong Un canceling North Korea summit]

But Trump said the scheduled meeting, or a future gathering, could take place if Kim changes his behavior.

“If and when Kim Jong Un chooses to engage in constructive dialogue and actions, I am waiting,” the president said. “In the meantime, our very strong sanctions, by far the strongest sanctions ever imposed, and maximum pressure campaign will continue as it has been continuing. But no matter what happens and what we do, we will never, ever compromise the safety and security of the United States of America.”

The president accepted in March an invitation to meet with Kim, a decision that marked a shift away from the bellicose rhetoric the two exchanged last year.

As negations between the U.S. and Pyongyang progressed ahead of the summit, North Korea took several steps to appear to ease tensions between the two countries.

This month, three U.S. citizens who had been detained in North Korea were released, and the rogue regime also vowed to close one of its nuclear weapons test sites. On Thursday, North Korea appeared to demolish the site.

But the rhetoric from Pyongyang again shifted as the June 12 summit drew closer.

North Korea threatened to cancel the summit after the U.S. and South Korean forces resumed joint military exercises, saying the drills were in preparation for an invasion.

Then, in a statement carried by North Korea’s state news agency, KCNA, Choe Son Hui, one of North Korea’s vice ministers of Foreign Affairs, slammed Vice President Mike Pence for “unbridled and impudent” comments about denuclearization.

“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,” Choe said.

That statement appeared to be the final straw for Trump, who warned Kim in his letter the U.S. nuclear capabilities “are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used.”

The president still left the door open for a meeting, telling Kim to contact him “if you change your mind having to do with this most important summit.”</s>WASHINGTON - 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."

This is a developing story. Stay with KSAT 12 both online and on-air for more information.</s>This combination of pictures created on May 24, 2018 shows President Trump at the National Building Museum May 22, 2018 in Washington, and an undated photo released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on May 10, 2016 of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un on May 9, 2016.

SEOUL — South Korean President Moon Jae-in called the cancellation of next month's landmark summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "very regrettable and unfortunate" and urged the two leaders to talk to each other directly.

Moon issued the statement after convening a late-night emergency meeting Thursday at the Blue House with top security aides and Cabinet members in response to Trump's abrupt cancellation of the scheduled June 12 summit in Singapore.

Moon said that establishing enduring peace and the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula are “historic tasks that cannot be abandoned or delayed.”

The Trump-Kim talks would have been the first meeting between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader.

The cancellation appeared to take the South Korean leader by surprise. In an initial response, Moon's spokesman, Kim Eui-kyeom, told reporters, "We are trying to figure out what President Trump's intention is and what it's exact meaning is."

Moon's top press secretary, Yoon Young-chan, quoted the South Korean president as saying it may be difficult to resolve the sensitive and difficult diplomatic issues through traditional means of communications.

"I hope (the countries) will resolve such issues through more direct and close dialogue between their leaders," he added, according to the Yonhap news agency.

In a letter to Kim released by the White House, Trump said he decided to cancel the meeting “based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement.”

It came hours after a North Korean official, Vice Foreign Affairs Minister Choe Son Hui, called Vice President Pence’s recent remarks comparing the reclusive nation with Libya as “ignorant” and “stupid,” according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Pence had said North Korea could end up like Libya if it doesn’t make a nuclear deal with Washington. Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi gave up his nuclear program in a deal with the U.S. and Britain in the early 2000s but was overthrown and brutally killed by Washington-backed rebels in 2011.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said he was "deeply concerned" by the cancellation of the summit.

North Korea, meanwhile, demolished its Punggye-ri nuclear test site on Thursday as it earlier said it would do ahead of the summit. All six of North Korea's nuclear tests have been held at the site.

Before Trump canceled the summit, North Korea said a nuclear showdown with the U.S. could again be possible, responding after Trump said Tuesday that his meeting with Kim might be delayed or even canceled.

“We will neither beg the U.S. for dialogue nor take the trouble to persuade them if they do not want to sit together with us,” Choe said, the KCNA reported.

“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,” she said.

"In case the U.S. offends against our goodwill and clings to unlawful and outrageous acts, I will put forward a suggestion to our supreme leadership for reconsidering the DPRK-U.S. summit," Choe added, using the North’s official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

More: Trump cancels meeting with North Korea, citing 'tremendous anger and open hostility'</s>LA MALBAIE, Que. - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expressing disappointment at the cancellation of the planned meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un.

Trudeau says there were hopes the get-together on June 12 could build on a recent meeting between leaders from North and South Korea.

The prime minister said the global community will continue to work toward achieving peace and stability in the region.

Trudeau made the comments in La Malbaie today as he continued his visit to the Quebec town two weeks before it plays host to the G7 summit.

Trump first announced his decision in a letter to Kim that was released by the White House.

The U.S. president called the cancellation a "tremendous setback" for peace but added it would have been inappropriate to hold the meeting because of what he described as "tremendous anger and open hostility" in a recent North Korean statement.</s>US President Donald Trump has cancelled 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.

In a letter to the dictator released by the White House, Trump said, he felt it was "inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting" based on the comments.

The president also said 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".

He said in the letter that the world is losing a "great opportunity for lasting peace and great prosperity and wealth" now that the summit has been cancelled.

Trump added: "This missed opportunity is a truly sad moment in history."

In the statement cited by Trump, 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 told Kim "please do not hesitate to call me or write" should he change his mind about a one-on-one meeting.</s>The Trump administration is blaming North Korea for President Donald Trump canceling his summit with Kim Jong Un, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying the country's recent rhetoric showed they were unprepared to meet.

"We did not walk away from this," Pompeo told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Thursday. "I regret the statements that the North Koreans have made over the past few days and the fact that we've not been able to conduct the preparation between our two teams that would be necessary to have a chance for a successful summit."

But Democrats weren't buying it, arguing the administration had mishandled the opportunity, blaming tough talk from top officials for sending the wrong message to Pyongyang.

"The art of diplomacy is a lot harder than the art of the deal," said the committee's top Democrat, Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey.

President Trump released a letter this morning, which the State Department had transmitted to North Korea and Kim Jong Un, saying he was canceling their meeting scheduled for June 12 in Singapore. He cited "the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement" and said the cancellation was "for the good of both parties, but to the detriment of the world."

North Korea had released a statement Thursday that bashed Vice President Mike Pence for "ignorant and stupid" comments, in which he cited the so-called "Libya model" for North Korea's denuclearization and said the U.S. still has the military option for solving the North Korean crisis on the table.

In 2003, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi agreed to give up his nuclear weapons in exchange for normalized relations with the U.S., but to many, including North Korea, the model includes Gaddafi's overthrow, aided by western airstrikes, and his violent death seven years later.

"We will neither beg the U.S. for dialogue nor take the trouble to persuade them if they do not want to sit together with us. 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," said Choe Son-hui, a vice foreign minister, in a statement on North Koran state television KCNA.

Trump seemed to respond directly to that threat of war in his letter, writing, "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."

But Pompeo, who read the letter at the top of the hearing, said plans for the summit had begun to fall apart over the few days, with the administration getting "a lot of dial tones" when reaching out to North Korea. That includes a planning meeting in Singapore last week where the North Koreans did not show up, according to a senior White House official.

"Over the past many days we have endeavored to do what Chairman Kim and I had agreed, was to put teams, preparation teams together to begin to work to prepare for the summit, and we have received no response to our inquiries from them," Pompeo said.

Democrats blamed a lack of understanding of North Korea and multiple references by Pence and National Security Adviser John Bolton to the "Libya model."

"The 'Libya model' as Kim Jong Un has been interpreting it is where leader surrenders their nuclear capability only to then be overthrown and killed," said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. "Why would you think that there would be any other interpretation than what happened to Gaddafi at the end of his denuclearization, which is that he wound up dead? Why think that that would not, in fact, elicit hostility from a negotiating partner only three weeks from sitting down across the table?"

Pompeo rejected that argument, saying in his conversations with Kim, he made clear the U.S. would provide security assurances long after they struck a deal. Pompeo has met Kim twice, as CIA Director and Secretary of State – the highest-ranking U.S. official to do so, meeting for more than three hours in total.

Pompeo also denied that the administration did not know what it was doing, saying, "The American team is fully prepared. I think we are rockin'. I think we are ready. I think we are prepared for this meeting."

With the summit scrapped, for now, the international sanctions regime will remain in place, with the goal of getting the two leaders to sit down at some point, according to Pompeo, who said there were no signs China was violating the United Nations sanctions in any "serious" way.

But those partners in the sanctions campaign were surprised by Trump's letter and sudden cancellation, and there are questions now about whether it will crack the global pressure on North Korea. Pompeo declined to say whether the administration gave South Korea or others a heads-up.

At the White House Thursday, Trump threatened military action, saying the Pentagon "is ready if necessary," although he declined to say if the breakdown of the summit raises the risk of war.

But Pompeo said he was "still optimistic" there could be a diplomatic solution: "The diplomacy this administration has engaged in has gotten us this far. I am confident that we will move forward in a way that will continue to give us the opportunity to achieve this," he said.</s>WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump decided to break off a planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un after Pyongyang broke a series of promises and cut off direct communication with the United States, a senior White House official said on Thursday.



Briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, the official also cited a statement from North Korea earlier on Thursday warning that it was prepared for a nuclear showdown with Washington.



"This strange lack of judgment, combined with the broken promises over the past weeks and North Korea's suspension of direct communication with the United States, suggests a profound lack of good faith," the official said. "There has been a trail of broken promises that has given the United States pause."
U.S. President Donald Trump cancels the scheduled summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, citing "tremendous anger and open hostility" in a recent statement by North Korea. Trump states that a summit can still happen, but warns that the military is ready if needed.