Amid the widespread diplomatic uncertainty caused by Donald Trump abruptly canceling the upcoming US-North Korea summit yesterday (May 24), one key voice has remained remarkably calm: that of the top US military commander on the Korean peninsula.

General Vincent Brooks, who commands 28,500 US troops stationed in South Korea, said today (May 25) in Seoul, “I am not worried about it because the opportunity is not lost. It is just delayed.”

Brooks also leads the South Korea-US Combined Forces Command, as well as the United Nations Command.

Trump earlier this week cast doubts on the summit happening as planned on June 12 in Singapore, but he said, “Someday, a date will absolutely happen.”

His decision to cancel appeared to happen so abruptly that there was not sufficient time to warn allies ahead of the announcement. South Korean president Moon Jae-in said he was “very perplexed” by the decision, and other world leaders expressed disappointment with it.

North Korea itself seemed taken aback. A report by the state-controlled KCNA news agency struck an almost gentle tone. First vice foreign minister Kim Kye Gwan expressed “great regret” for Trump’s decision, and said North Korea remains “broad-minded and open all the time” for further discussions with the US.

The KCNA piece even seemed to flatter Trump, stating of the summit: “We have inwardly highly appreciated President Trump for having made the bold decision, which any other U.S. presidents dared not, and made efforts for such a crucial event as the summit.”

But many felt the Trump administration was rushing into a summit too quickly, with insufficient preparation. It wasn’t even clear that the two sides meant the same thing by “denuclearization.” Trump agreed to the meeting abruptly earlier this year, taking many by surprise.

Robert Kelly, a professor of political science at South Korea’s Pusan National University, told CNN earlier this week that

 “the Trump administration is going into [the summit] very, very quickly.” He said the most sensible solution would be to postpone the meeting for six to eight months, and allow negotiators to “hammer out a framework to narrow the differences between the two sides.”

The tone in today’s KCNA release was in marked contrast to the angry statements by North Korea earlier this week that apparently prompted Trump to cancel the summit. If Trump was aiming to change the North Korean tone by canceling the meeting—with an eye toward later rescheduling it—that gamble might have paid off.

Brooks said it’s “too early to quit” on the idea of a diplomatic breakthrough with North Korea. And, he added, it might have been “too early to celebrate.”</s>SEOUL, May 26 (Reuters) - South Korean President Moon Jae-in met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday to discuss Kim's possible upcoming summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, the South said, the second inter-Korean summit in as many months.

Moon and Kim met just north of the heavily militarised border in the afternoon to exchange views to pave way for a summit between North Korea and the United States, South Korea's presidential office said.

Moon will announce the outcome of his two-hour meeting with Kim on Sunday morning, officials aid. (Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin and Soyoung Kim Editing by Alison Williams)</s>After that, however, a senior White House official said the North had reneged on its promises ahead of the summit. Trump said from the White House that a "maximum pressure campaign" of economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation would continue against North Korea — with which the U.S. is technically still at war — though he added that it was possible the summit could still take place at some point.

The senior U.S. official said the North violated a pledge to allow international inspectors to monitor the supposed implosion of the test site. International journalists were present, but the U.S. government can't verify the site's destruction. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid overshadowing Trump's comments Thursday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, a staunch ally of Kim Jong Un, said the North Korean leader had in fact done "everything that he had promised in advance, even blowing up the tunnels and shafts" of the site. Putin said of Trump's cancellation announcement, "In Russia we took this news with regret."

On Friday, North Korea's vice foreign minister said his country's "objective and resolve to do our best for the sake of peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and all humankind remain unchanged."

Trump, in his letter to Kim, objected specifically to a statement from a top North Korean Foreign Ministry official. That statement referred to Vice-President Mike Pence as a "political dummy" for his comments on the North and said it was up to the Americans whether they would "meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown."

Underscoring the high stakes, Trump said he had spoken with military leaders, as well as Japan and South Korea, and stressed that the United States was prepared for any threat.

Still, Trump's cancellation announcement had appeared to surprise South Korea, which had pushed to keep the summit on track as recently as Tuesday, when President Moon Jae-in met with Trump in the Oval Office and said the "fate and the future" of the Korean Peninsula hinged on the talks. The Blue House said Thursday that it was trying to figure out Trump's intentions in cancelling the summit.

Trump, who considers himself a master dealmaker, has confounded aides and allies at every turn of the fateful flirtation with the North. He looked past the warnings of senior aides when he accepted Kim's invitation to meet back in March. He unveiled the date and the time with characteristic showmanship. And after initially projecting calm in the face of North Korea's escalating rhetoric, he made a sudden about face, though his letter also waxed poetic about the "wonderful dialogue" emerging between the two leaders.

Wrote Trump: "If you change your mind having to do with this most important summit, please do not hesitate to call me or write."

Trump's aides had warned that merely agreeing to the summit had provided Kim with long-sought international legitimacy and, if Trump ultimately backed out, risked fostering the perception that the president was insufficiently committed to diplomatic solutions to the nuclear question.

U.S. defence and intelligence officials have repeatedly assessed the North to be on the threshold of having the capability to strike anywhere in the continental U.S. with a nuclear-tipped missile — a capacity that Trump and other U.S. officials have said they would not tolerate.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, testifying Thursday on Capitol Hill, said North Korea had not responded to repeated requests from U.S. officials to discuss logistics for the summit. He told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee the lack of response was an additional reason for Trump's decision.

"We got a lot of dial tones, Senator," he told committee chairman Bob Corker.

A White House team was set to fly to Singapore this weekend to continue logistical planning for the meeting.

Trump suggested this week that China was to blame for "a little change" in Kim's attitude. Kim paid a secret visit to his primary ally just before Pompeo's visit, and China is wary of any shift in the balance of power on the Korean peninsula.

White House officials have privately predicted for weeks that the summit could be cancelled once or twice before actually taking place. Trump has seemed to welcome chatter of a Nobel Peace Prize, but that had yielded in recent weeks to the sobering prospect of ensuring a successful outcome with the Kim.

Associated Press writers Deb Riechmann, Lisa Mascaro, Ken Thomas and Darlene Superville in Washington, Ted Anthony and Jonathan Lemire in New York and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul contributed to this report

By Catherine Lucey And Zeke Miller, The Associated Press</s>An ageing 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:

First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, 75, led the North Korean delegation at much of the off-and-on six-nation nuclear disarmament talks held in Beijing in 2003-2008. In the talks among the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan, he was known for seeking a series of concessions in return for slow disarmament steps. South Korean media called his strategy “salami tactics,” comparing it to cutting thin slices off a salami.

Under the agreements reached in the negotiations, North Korea halted atomic activities and disabled key elements of its weapons program in return for security guarantees, shipments of fuel and other aid. But the deals eventually collapsed amid disputes over how to verify the North’s disarmament steps. Criticism subsequently flared in Washington, Seoul and elsewhere that the deals only benefited North Korea.

In recent months, Kim Kye Gwan, who was also a senior member of the ruling Workers’ Party and a delegate to the rubber-stamp parliament, has been rarely mentioned in state media, triggering speculation that he might be ill.

On May 16, however, he issued a statement threatening to scuttle the Kim-Trump summit to protest what he called Washington’s push for one-sided disarmament. That tossed fuel on skepticism in the U.S. about whether North Korea truly intends to deal away its nuclear program.

Also a vice foreign minister, Choe, about 54, is one of the few women who hold high-level posts in North Korea’s male-dominated ruling elite. Other high-profile women include Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, who is in charge of the North’s propaganda affairs, and his young, popular wife, Ri Sol Ju.

Reportedly a stepdaughter of former Premier Choe Yong Rim, Choe Son Hui worked as an English-language interpreter for Kim Kye Gwan during the six-party talks after studying in Austria and China. She then headed the North American Affairs Bureau at the Foreign Ministry before a state media dispatch in March confirmed her promotion to vice foreign minister.

Seoul’s Unification Ministry says Choe is the highest-ranking woman in North Korea’s Foreign Ministry.

On Thursday, she grabbed international headlines by calling U.S. Vice President Mike Pence a “political dummy” and threatening to scrap the Kim-Trump summit. “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.

This directly led Trump to say it was “inappropriate” to go ahead with the summit because of the “tremendous anger and open hostility” displayed in the North’s “most recent statement.”

Kim Kye Gwan tried quickly to calm the situation, saying in a statement that North Korea is still willing to hold talks with the United States “at any time, in any format.”

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App</s>North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met for the second time in a month on Saturday, holding a surprise summit at a border truce village to discuss Kim's potential meeting with President Donald Trump, Moon's office said.

Kim and Moon met hours after South Korea expressed relief over revived talks for a summit between Trump and Kim following a whirlwind 24 hours that saw Trump cancel the highly anticipated meeting before saying it's potentially back on.

The quickly arranged meeting seemed to demonstrate Kim's urgency to secure a summit with Trump, which may provide his best shot at saving his economy from crushing sanctions and win security assurances in a region surrounded by enemies, analysts say.

It remains unclear whether Kim would ever agree to fully abandon his nuclear arsenal in return. Moon has insisted Kim can be persuaded to abandon his nuclear facilities, materials and bombs in a verifiable and irreversible way in exchange for credible security and economic guarantees.

Moon, who brokered the summit between Washington and Pyongyang, likely used Saturday's meeting to confirm Kim's willingness to enter nuclear negotiations with Trump and clarify what steps Kim has in mind in the process of denuclearization, said Hong Min, a senior analyst at Seoul's Korea Institute for National Unification.

"While Washington and Pyongyang have expressed their hopes for a summit through published statements, Moon has to step up as the mediator because the surest way to set the meeting in stone would be an official confirmation of intent between heads of states," Hong said.

South Korean presidential spokesman Yoon Young-chan said Moon will reveal details of his meeting with Kim on Sunday.

Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Seoul's Dongguk University and a policy adviser to Moon, said the two leaders likely discussed bridging the gap between Washington and Pyongyang on what a deal on the North's nuclear weapons would look like.

U.S. officials have talked about a comprehensive one-shot deal in which North Korea fully eliminates its nukes first and receives rewards later. But Kim, through two summits with Chinese President Xi Jinping in March and May, has called for a phased and synchronized process in which every action he takes is met with a reciprocal reward from the United States.

Koh said Moon would try to persuade Kim to accept an alternative approach advocated by Seoul, in which the North's comprehensive commitment and credible actions toward denuclearization are followed by a phased but compressed process of declaration, inspection and verifiable dismantling. Before he canceled the summit, Trump this past week did not rule out an incremental approach that would provide incentives along the way to the North.

Trump tweeted earlier Saturday that a summit with Kim, if it does happen, will likely take place on June 12 in Singapore as originally planned.

Following an unusually provocative 2017 in which his engineers tested a purported thermonuclear warhead and three long-range missiles theoretically capable of striking mainland U.S. cities, Kim has engaged in a flurry of diplomatic activity in recent months. In addition to his summits with Moon and Xi, Kim also has had two meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

It wasn't immediately clear how the rival Koreas organized what appeared to be an emergency summit. Ahead of their first meeting last month, Kim and Moon established a hotline that they said would enable direct communication between the leaders and would be valuable to defuse crises, but it was unclear whether it was used to set up the latest meeting.

Photos released by South Korea's presidential office showed Moon arriving at the North Korean side of the Panmunjom truce village and shaking hands with Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jong, before sitting down with Kim for their summit.

The two leaders embraced as Moon departed.

Moon's office said that during their two-hour meeting, the two leaders also discussed carrying out the peace commitments they agreed to at their first summit, held at the South Korean side of Panmunjom on April 27, but didn't elaborate.

At their first meeting, Kim and Moon announced vague aspirations for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and permanent peace, which Seoul has tried to sell as a meaningful breakthrough to set up the summit with Trump.

But relations between the two Koreas chilled in recent weeks, with North Korea canceling a high-level meeting with Seoul over South Korea's participation in regular military exercises with the United States and insisting that it will not return to talks unless its grievances are resolved.

South Korea was caught off guard by Trump's abrupt cancellation of his summit with Kim, with the U.S. president citing hostility in recent North Korean comments. Moon 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."

Trump's back-and-forth over his summit plans with Kim has exposed the fragility of Seoul as an intermediary. It fanned fears in South Korea that the country may lose its voice between a rival intent on driving a wedge between Washington and Seoul and an American president who thinks less of the traditional alliance with Seoul than his predecessors did.

Trump's decision to pull out of the summit came just days after he hosted Moon at the White House, where he openly cast doubts on the Singapore meeting but offered no support for continued inter-Korean progress, essentially ignoring the North's recent attempts to coerce the South.

In a letter to Kim announcing the cancellation, Trump objected specifically to a statement from senior North Korean diplomat Choe Son Hui. Choe had referred to Vice President Mike Pence as a "political dummy" for earlier comments he made about North Korea and said it was up to the Americans whether they would "meet us at a meeting room or encounter us (in a) nuclear-to-nuclear showdown."

North Korea issued an unusually restrained and diplomatic response to Trump, saying it was still willing to sit for talks with the United States "at any time, (in) any format."

"The first meeting would not solve all, but solving even one at a time in a phased way would make the relations get better rather than making them get worse," North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan said in a statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency, which mainly targets an external audience.

Notably, the statement did not appear in Saturday's edition of Rodong Sinmun, which is the official mouthpiece of the North's ruling party and is widely read by North Koreans.</s>US President Donald Trump has said his summit with North Korea's leader could still happen on 12 June, despite earlier cancelling the meeting.

"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 told reporters.

On Thursday, he blamed the North's "open hostility" for the cancellation of his talks with Kim Jong-un.

North Korea later said it was willing to talk "at any time in any form".

The 12 June summit in Singapore would have been the first time a sitting US president had met a North Korean leader.

The details of the now scrapped talks were unclear. But they would have focused on ways of denuclearising the Korean peninsula and reducing tensions.

Just hours before Mr Trump cancelled the summit, North Korea said it had carried out its promise to dismantle tunnels at its only nuclear test site.
• 'My country was trying to test Trump'
• How did it all fall apart so soon?

Speaking to reporters outside the White House in Washington, the US president said: "We gonna see what happens. We're talking to them [North Korea] now. It was a very nice statement they put out."

Shortly before this, Mr Trump welcomed North Korea's willingness to hold talks "at any time", describing it as "warm and productive".

"We have got... possibly some good news on the Korea summit, where it may, if our diplomats can pull it off, may have it back on," he told reporters.

It was personally addressed to Mr Kim.

Mr Trump said he had been "very much looking forward" to meeting Mr Kim.

"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 the long-planned meeting," Mr Trump said in a letter to Mr Kim.

"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," he added.

But he called the meeting a "missed opportunity", saying "some day, I look very much forward to meeting you".

In a separate statement at the White House, Mr Trump said the step was a "tremendous setback for North Korea and the world", adding the US military was "ready if necessary" to respond to any "reckless" act from North Korea.

A senior administration official in the US later gave further details, saying North Korea had shown "a profound lack of good faith".

There were a series of "broken promises" from Pyongyang, the official told reporters, including when the White House sent the deputy chief of staff to Singapore to meet North Korean diplomats ahead of the summit.

What Mr Trump was referring to?

He was apparently responding to statements from a senior North Korean diplomat attacking his administration and casting doubt over the meeting.

Choe Son-hui had said the suggestions from US Vice-President Mike Pence that North Korea "may end like Libya" was "stupid".

Ms Choe, who has been involved in several diplomatic interactions with the US over the past decade, said the North would not "beg" for dialogue and warned of a "nuclear showdown" if diplomacy failed.
• What cancelled summit says about Trump foreign policy

A White House official quoted by Reuters news agency described the comments about Mr Pence as the "last straw". They stressed, however, there was a "backdoor that's open still".

References to Libya have angered North Korea. There, former leader Colonel Gaddafi gave up his nascent nuclear programme only for him to be killed by Western-backed rebels a few years later.

North Korea says that, unlike Libya, it is a fully fledged nuclear state. It is insistent it will not engage in any peace process that jeopardises its leadership or its survival as a state.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said he was "very perplexed" and that it was "very regrettable" that the summit was not going ahead.

He was not informed of the decision before Mr Trump's announcement, reports said.

It was South Korean officials who first informed the US earlier this year that Mr Kim was prepared to discuss potential nuclear disarmament.

In April, the leaders of both Koreas had a historic meeting at the border, promising to end hostilities and work towards the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the US and North Korea should not give up, saying "nerves of steel" were required.

In the US, Republican Senator Tom Cotton praised President Trump for "seeing through Kim Jong-un's fraud". But Democratic Senator Brian Schatz said the move was what happened "when amateurs are combined with warmongers".
• Chinese say Trump not playing fair with Kim</s>SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met for the second time in a month on Saturday to discuss carrying out the peace commitments they reached in their first summit and Kim's potential meeting with President Donald Trump, Moon's office said.

South Korean presidential spokesman Yoon Young-chan said Moon will reveal the outcome of his surprise meeting with Kim on Sunday. The presidential Blue House did not immediately provide more details.

The meeting at a border truce village came hours after South Korea expressed relief over revived talks for a summit between Trump and Kim following a whirlwind 24 hours that saw Trump cancel the highly anticipated meeting before saying it's potentially back on. Trump later tweeted that the summit, if it does happen, will likely take place on June 12 in Singapore as originally planned.

In their first summit in April, Kim and Moon announced vague aspirations for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and permanent peace, which Seoul has tried to sell as a meaningful breakthrough to set up the summit with Trump.

But relations between the rival Koreas chilled in recent weeks, with North Korea canceling a high-level meeting with Seoul over South Korea's participation in regular military exercises with the United States and insisting that it will not return to talks unless its grievances are resolved.

South Korea, which brokered the talks between Washington and Pyongyang, was caught off guard by Trump's abrupt cancellation of the summit in which he cited hostility in recent North Korean comments. Moon 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."

Trump's back-and-forth over his summit plans with Kim has exposed the fragility of Seoul as an intermediary. It fanned fears in South Korea that the country may lose its voice between a rival intent on driving a wedge between Washington and Seoul and an American president who thinks less of the traditional alliance with Seoul than his predecessors.

Trump's decision to pull out of the summit with Kim came just days after he hosted Moon in a White House meeting where he openly cast doubts on the Singapore meeting but offered no support for continued inter-Korean progress, essentially ignoring the North's recent attempts to coerce the South.

In his letter to Kim, Trump objected specifically to a statement from senior North Korean diplomat Choe Son Hui. She referred to Vice President Mike Pence as a "political dummy" for his earlier comments on North Korea and said it was up to the Americans whether they would "meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown."

North Korea issued an unusually restrained and diplomatic response to Trump, saying it's still willing to sit for talks with the United States "at any time, (in) any format."

"The first meeting would not solve all, but solving even one at a time in a phased way would make the relations get better rather than making them get worse," North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan said in a statement carried by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency, which mainly targets external audience.

Notably, the statement did not appear in Saturday's edition of Rodong Sinmun, the official mouthpiece of the North's ruling party that's widely read by North Koreans.

The newspaper instead focused on Kim Jong Un's visit to the coastal town of Wonsan to inspect the construction of a beachfront tourist complex. Kim ordered the complex to be finished by April 15 next year to mark the birthday of his late grandfather and North Korea founder Kim Il Sung. Kim Jong Un's comments published by the newspaper did not include any mention of his potential meeting with Trump.

Analysts say Kim's diplomatic outreach in recent months after a flurry of nuclear and missile tests in 2017 indicates he is eager for sanctions relief to build his economy and the international legitimacy the summit with Trump would provide. But there's also skepticism whether Kim will ever agree to fully relinquish his nuclear arsenal, which he likely sees as his only guarantee of survival.

Comments in North Korea's state media indicate Kim sees any meeting with Trump as an arms control negotiation between nuclear states, rather than a process to surrender his nukes. The North has said it will refuse to participate in talks where it would be unilaterally pressured to give up its nukes.</s>WASHINGTON — President Trump canceled a scheduled nuclear summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Thursday, citing the "tremendous anger and open hostility" he said Kim displayed in recent statements.

In a letter to Kim, Trump described the decision to end negotiations over the June 12 meeting in Singapore as a "truly sad moment in history." The two countries were working for weeks toward a first-ever summit of a North Korean leader and a U.S. president.

"This is a tremendous setback for North Korea, and indeed a setback for the world," Trump said at the White House hours after the letter was released. "If and when Kim Jong Un chooses to engage in constructive dialogue and actions, I am waiting."

Trump said he spoke to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and allies in the region on Thursday and repeatedly indicated U.S. military forces were ready should North Korea engage in any "foolish or reckless acts." The prospect of a summit had significantly eased tensions between North Korea and the U.S. that had escalated last year.

At the same time, the president appeared to leave a door open to further talks and, at one point, even suggested the meeting set for next month was still a possibility.

"It’s possible that the existing summit could take place, or a summit at some later date," Trump said.

In response, North Korea said it is still willing to sit down with Trump "at any time, at any format."

Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan issued a statement Friday saying North Korea is "willing to give the U.S. time and opportunities" to reconsider talks.

Kim said Trump's decision was "unexpected" and "very regrettable" and North Korea's "objective and resolve to do our best for the sake of peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and all humankind remain unchanged."

The cancellation of the summit showed "how grave the status of historically deep-rooted hostile North Korea-U.S. relations is and how urgently a summit should be realized to improve ties," Kim said.

More: North Korea demolishes nuclear test site, as Trump cancels summit with Kim Jong Un

The likelihood of a summit seemed to be crumbling for weeks, but the timing was still a surprise.

On Tuesday, Trump said there was a “very substantial chance” it wouldn’t work out, and suggested that the meeting could be delayed. On Wednesday, he said he would make the decision next week, and as late as Thursday morning appeared in a taped interview on Fox News Channel in which he said there was “a good chance” the summit with North Korea would take place.

But Trump moved up the timetable after North Korea reacted sharply to comments made by Vice President Pence that Kim would "end like the Libyan model" if he didn't give up his nuclear weapons. Libyan dictator Col. Moammar Gadhafi gave up his nuclear weapons in exchange for sanctions relief in 2003 — and was beaten and killed by rebels eight years later.

Calling Pence's remarks "ignorant" and "stupid," the Kim regime threatened to back out of the talks.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who had traveled to Pyongyang twice to meet with Kim, told a Senate committee that North Korea had not engaged with the U.S. on efforts to plan details of the summit. He said U.S. negotiators were prepared for those discussions, but didn’t hear back Kim’s government.

“We had received no response to our inquires from them,” Pompeo said.

A senior administration official told reporters Thursday that the White House had not heard from North Korea for weeks until it received a "propaganda" message Wednesday night that threatened the U.S. with a "nuclear-to-nuclear showdown." The official said North Korea also stood up a U.S. delegation that traveled to Singapore last week to begin planning for the summit.

The official said the president "slept on" the message Wednesday and then decided to dictate the letter to Kim canceling the summit on Thursday morning.

The prospect of a summit first surfaced in March, when South Korean national security adviser Chung Eui-yong conducted shuttle diplomacy between Pyongyang and Washington. It was Chung who told Trump the North Koreans would meet without preconditions — something Trump now suggests may not have been the case.

"We were informed that the meeting was requested by North Korea, but that to me is totally irrelevant," Trump wrote to Kim. "I was very much looking forward to being there with you."

Trump's letter appeared to keep open the possibility of a later summit, telling Kim to contact him if he changes his mind.

Congressional hawks immediately applauded Trump's decision to back out. "North Korea has a long history of demanding concessions merely to negotiate," said Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark. "While past administrations of both parties have fallen for this ruse, I commend the president for seeing through Kim Jong Un’s fraud."

But Democrats said the Trump administration's own missteps were to responsible for the breakdown.

“The art of diplomacy is a lot harder than the art of the deal,” said New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Menendez blamed the administration’s “lack of preparation” and also questioned why the White House was “constantly quoting” the Libya model.

In his letter, Trump returned to some of the "fire and fury" rhetoric he used as he tried to force North Korea to the table last year. "You talk about your nuclear capabilities. but ours are so massive and powerful that l pray to God they will never have to be used."

But the letter also thanked Kim for the release of American hostages held in North Korea two weeks ago. "That was a beautiful gesture and was, very much appreciated," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.</s>Dealmaker Trump takes page from own playbook and walks away

WASHINGTON (AP) — For President Donald Trump, Kim Jong Un may be the deal that got away.

Trump and his team weathered insults, tolerated unanswered phone calls and waited hours for negotiating partners who never showed up as they sought to keep the planned Singapore summit with Kim on track.

With prospects dimming and aides increasingly skeptical, Trump at first clung to his plans to meet with the North Korean leader, seeking to pull off what the president saw as a history-making nuclear deal. A self-professed master negotiator, Trump could envision Nobel laurels in the offing of the unprecedented one-on-one meeting.

Eager for a dramatic moment and a bold accomplishment, Trump agreed to Kim's March overture for a summit in less than an hour, ignoring the warnings of seasoned advisers who said it could backfire.

But on Thursday morning, Trump determined that — for now anyway — the meeting was an unrequited diplomatic dream, his hopes appearing to dissolve in a tale of broken promises.

N. Korea keeps hopes of talks alive after Trump cancellation

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Friday that it's still willing to sit for talks with the United States "at any time, (in) any format," a remarkably restrained and diplomatic response, from a nation noted for its proud belligerence, to U.S. President Donald Trump's abrupt cancellation of a summit with the North's autocratic leader, Kim Jong Un.

The statement by Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, a longtime nuclear negotiator and senior diplomat, which said the North is "willing to give the U.S. time and opportunities" to reconsider talks that had been set for June 12 in Singapore, could be driven by a need to use the summit to ease crushing international sanctions, or by a determination that a summit with the mercurial Trump is the best opportunity the North will ever have to elevate itself, and its nuclear program, to equality with its archrival. One analyst marveled that the North Korean response was "close to an apology letter."

Regardless of the motivation, Kim Kye Gwan's statement is the latest whiplash development in efforts to diplomatically address what might be the world's most dangerous standoff. Focus will now swing back to how Trump will respond to the North's seemingly conciliatory gesture.

The stakes are high. A scrapping of diplomacy could see a return to the torrent of weapons tests — and the fears of war they created — that North Korea unleashed last year as it sought to put the finishing touches on a nuclear-armed missile program meant to target the entire U.S. mainland. Since January, Kim has taken a radically softer approach to foreign affairs, sending his sister to the Olympics in South Korea, meeting with his South Korean counterpart on their shared border and exploding parts of his nuclear testing site Thursday in an apparent sign of good faith. The Singapore summit would have been the culmination of this outreach.

Earlier comments by South Korean President Moon Jae-in, seen as a driving force behind the summit and just returned to Seoul from a meeting with Trump in Washington, suggested that the South, a top U.S. ally and host to 28,500 U.S. troops, was blindsided by Trump's statement. Moon said he was "perplexed" at Trump's announcement that he was canceling the summit because of what the U.S. president said was North Korea's "tremendous anger and open hostility." Moon urged direct talks between Trump and Kim to get things back on track.

Trump balks at North Korea's rhetoric but it has used worse

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — When North Korea slammed U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and national security adviser John Bolton, its language was very blunt and impolite. But it was milder than its typical crude and inflammatory insults unleased on other top U.S. and South Korean officials.

The North likely had just tried to strengthen its positions amid negotiations on the size of concessions it could wrest from the United States in return for giving up its nuclear program.

But its calling Pence a "political dummy" was still strong enough for President Donald Trump to cite North Korea's hostility in scrapping the June 12 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, at a time when the president faced mounting pessimism at home about Kim's sincerity.

Apparently startled at Trump's abrupt move, a senior North Korean official, who touched off his country's recent rhetorical attacks on Washington, issued an unusually conciliatory statement Friday saying the North still wants to engage with the United States.

A look at how the North's statements have evolved over the past nine days, from harsh criticism of U.S. officials and threats to cancel the summit to a near apology:

NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein was expected to turn himself in to police Friday morning to face charges involving an aspiring actress who said he forced her to perform oral sex on him, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press.

It would be the first criminal case against Weinstein to come out of the barrage of sexual abuse allegations from scores of women that destroyed his career and set off a national reckoning that brought down other powerful men in what has become known as the #MeToo movement.

The two officials said the criminal case involves allegations by Lucia Evans, who told a magazine that Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex. She was among the first women to speak out about the 66-year-old film producer. One official said it's likely the case also will include at least one other victim who has not come forward publicly.

The officials spoke Thursday to the AP on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the investigation.

Evans confirmed to The New Yorker that she was pressing charges.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican and Democratic lawmakers have gotten classified briefings about the origins of the FBI investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election, a highly unusual series of meetings prompted by partisan allegations that the bureau spied on Donald Trump's campaign.

Democrats emerged from the meetings saying they saw no evidence to support Republican allegations that the FBI acted inappropriately, although they did express grave concern about the presence of a White House lawyer at Thursday's briefings. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Fox News he had learned "nothing particularly surprising," but declined to go into detail.

Still, the extraordinary briefings drew attention to the unproved claims of FBI misconduct and political bias. The meetings were sought by Trump's GOP allies and arranged by the White House, as the president has tried to sow suspicions about the legitimacy of the FBI investigation that spawned a special counsel probe. Initially offered only to Republicans, the briefings were the latest piece of stagecraft meant to publicize and bolster the allegations. But they also highlighted the degree to which the president and his allies have used the levers of the federal government — in this case, intelligence agencies — to aide in Trump's personal and political defense.

Under direct pressure from the president, Justice Department officials agreed to grant Republicans a briefing, and only later opened it up to Democrats. The invite list evolved up until hours before the meeting — a reflection of the partisan distrust and the political wrangling. A White House lawyer, Emmet Flood, and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly showed up for both briefings, although the White House had earlier said it would keep a distance, drawing criticism from Democrats.

"For the record, the president's chief of staff and his attorney in an ongoing criminal investigation into the president's campaign have no business showing up to a classified intelligence briefing," Sen. Mark Warner tweeted after the briefing.

TORONTO (AP) — An explosion caused by an "improvised explosive device" ripped through an Indian restaurant in a mall in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga, wounding 15 people, Canadian police said.

Peel Region Sergeant Matt Bertram said two suspects with their faces covered to conceal their identity entered the Bombay Bhel restaurant late Thursday, dropped some sort of IED device and fled.

"We have no indication to call it a hate crime or any kind of terrorism act," Bertram said.

Peel Region paramedic Joe Korstanje said three people suffered critical injuries and were taken to the hospital while the remaining 12 victims suffered what he described as minor and superficial injuries. Police later updated the condition of the three critically injured patients to stable.

The explosion happened just after 10:30 p.m. on Thursday, and the plaza where the restaurant is located was still sealed off on Friday.

RAFAH BORDER CROSSING, Gaza Strip (AP) — Just after daybreak, Hamed al-Shaer came down the narrow stairway of his family's home in southern Gaza pulling a black suitcase and said goodbye to his mother. They hugged at the gate and he kissed her hands in a show of devotion as she struggled to control her emotions.

"Emigration is better," she said of his plan to return to Saudi Arabia where he has lived for the past 13 years, most recently working as a driver.

But by nightfall he was back, despondent after his third failed attempt this week to exit the blockaded Gaza Strip through the congested Rafah border crossing.

Egypt has opened Rafah for the duration of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, temporarily easing a border blockade of Gaza that it has enforced, along with Israel, for the past 11 years. But thousands of people hoping to travel are on a waiting list, a backlog created by long periods of closures, and Egyptian border officials are processing them at an excruciatingly slow pace.

Al-Shaer, whose name was near the top of the list of those cleared for travel, was getting increasingly desperate. If he didn't get out by early June, his Saudi residency permit would expire.

Cyclone Mekunu to be 'extremely severe' on landfall in Oman

SALALAH, Oman (AP) — Cyclone Mekunu will be "extremely severe" when it crashes into the Arabian Peninsula this weekend after earlier thrashing the Yemeni island of Socotra, meteorologists warned Friday. At least 17 people were missing from Socotra, with a Yemeni official saying they were likely dead.

The cyclone is expected to make landfall early Saturday near Salalah, Oman's third-largest city and home to some 200,000 people near the sultanate's border with war-ravaged Yemen.

Conditions quickly deteriorated in Salalah after sunrise Friday, with winds and rain beginning to pick up. Strong waves smashed into empty tourist beaches. Many holidaymakers fled the storm Thursday night before Salalah International Airport closed. The Port of Salalah — a key gateway for the country — also closed, its cranes secured against the pounding rain.

Streets quickly emptied across the city. Standing water covered some roads and caused at least one car to hydroplane and flip over. A sizable police presence fanned out, many in Royal Oman Police SUVs with chicken wire over the windows.

As torrential rains poured down, local authorities opened up schools to shelter those whose homes are at risk. About 600 people, mostly laborers, huddled at the West Salalah School, some sleeping on mattresses on the floors of classrooms, where math and English lesson posters hung on the walls.

NFL's policy could mean a new playbook on protests this fall

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Now that the NFL is drawing the line against players kneeling during the national anthem, athletes protesting police brutality and racial inequality may need to find a new playbook.

The question is whether they intend to escalate their protests in some way.

"The owners can try to prevent kneeling, but they open another can of worms," said Randal Maurice Jelks, professor of African and African-American studies and history at the University of Kansas. "Imagine if players decide as a team to not come out for the national anthem. Or if one-third of the team decides not to come out."

Hoping to quell the furor started by quarterback Colin Kaepernick two years ago, the NFL announced Wednesday that players can stay in the locker room during "The Star-Spangled Banner" but must stand if they venture onto the field. Not doing so will result in a fine against the team.

The decision was lauded by President Donald Trump, who suggested Thursday in a Fox interview that "maybe you shouldn't be in the country" if you don't stand for the anthem.

APNewsBreak: Tesla in Autopilot sped up before Utah crash

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Tesla that crashed while in Autopilot mode in Utah this month accelerated in the seconds before it smashed into a stopped firetruck, according to a police report obtained by The Associated Press. Two people were injured.

Data from the Model S electric vehicle show it picked up speed for 3.5 seconds shortly before crashing into a stopped firetruck in suburban Salt Lake City, the report said. The driver manually hit the brakes a fraction of a second before impact.

Police suggested that the car was following another vehicle and dropped its speed to 55 mph to match the leading vehicle. They say the leading vehicle then likely changed lanes and the Tesla automatically sped up to its preset of 60 mph (97 kph) without noticing the stopped cars ahead of it.

The police report, which was obtained Thursday through an open records request, provides detail about the vehicle's actions immediately before the May 11 crash and the driver's familiarity with its system.

The driver of the vehicle, Heather Lommatzsch, 29, told police she thought the vehicle's automatic emergency braking system would detect traffic and stop before the car hit another vehicle.</s>SEOUL: North and South Korea's leaders held surprise talks on Saturday to get a historic summit between Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump back on track after a head-spinning series of twists and turns.

The meeting is the latest remarkable diplomatic chapter in a roller coaster of developments on the Korean peninsula.

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Trump had rattled the region on Thursday by cancelling his meeting with Kim which had been due to take place in Singapore on Jun 12 citing "open hostility" from Pyongyang.

But within 24 hours he reversed course saying it could still go ahead after productive talks were held with North Korean officials.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in met with Kim Saturday in an effort to ensure the landmark meeting between Trump and the North Korean leader goes ahead.

"They exchanged views and discussed ways to implement the Panmunjom Declaration and to ensure a successful US-North Korea summit," Seoul's presidential Blue House said in a statement, adding Moon would make a personal statement on Sunday morning.

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The leaders held talks for two hours in the same Panmunjom truce village where they had met last month, making a declaration vowing to improve ties.

Pictures showed them shaking hands and embracing on the North Korean side of the Demilitarised Zone separating the two nations.

This handout from the Blue House taken and released on May 26, 2018 shows South Korea's President Moon Jae-in (L) shaking hands with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un before their second summit at the north side of the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). (AFP PHOTO / THE BLUE HOUSE)

REMARKABLE DETENTE

Trump's original decision to abandon the historic summit blindsided South Korea which had been brokering a remarkable detente between Washington and Pyongyang.

However, there was a further signal from the US Saturday the Jun 12 summit may yet go ahead as the White House said it would send a team to Singapore to prepare for the meeting.

"The White House pre-advance team for Singapore will leave as scheduled in order to prepare should the summit take place," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said.

Last year Trump and Kim were threatening war after Pyongyang tested its most powerful nuclear bomb to date and launched test missiles it said were capable of reaching the United States.

Tensions were calmed after Kim extended an olive branch to Seoul by offering to send a delegation to the Winter Olympics in South Korea, sparking a sudden detente that led to Trump agreeing to hold direct talks with Pyongyang.

Moon, a longtime advocate of engagement with the North, won election last year partly by vowing to be open to dialogue with Pyongyang and finding a solution to a Cold War-era sore that continues to blight the region.

But the flurry of diplomatic backslapping and bonhomie disappeared in recent weeks as the summit was thrown into doubt by increasingly bellicose rhetoric from both top US administration officials and Pyongyang.

Trump eventually pulled the plug on talks in a personal letter to Kim on Thursday.

But he left the door open to future meetings and Pyongyang responded by saying it was willing to sit down "at any time", prompting Trump to reply that the Singapore summit could still take place.

This handout from the Blue House taken and released on May 26, 2018 shows South Korea's President Moon Jae-in (second L) and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un (R) during their second summit at the north side of the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). (AFP PHOTO / THE BLUE HOUSE)

Saturday's meeting between Moon and Kim took place in a grand building on the North Korean side of Panmunjom, a heavily fortified village that lies between the two countries and marks the spot where the armistice ending the Korean War in 1953 was signed.

Only last month the two leaders met in the same village, with Kim famously inviting Moon to step briefly into the North before they both held talks in a building on the South's side.

Koh Yu-hwan, an expert on Korean relations at Dongguk University, said Saturday's meeting between Moon and Kim increased the likelihood of the Singapore summit taking place as originally intended.

"Today's summit is aimed at resolving the misunderstanding caused by communication glitches between Washington and Pyongyang and lay the groundwork for the US-North Korea summit," he told AFP.

Adam Mount, a nuclear policy expert at the Federation of American Scientists, said it was a "bold but risky" move by Moon, describing the sudden summit as "a clear demonstration of how dangerous Trump's temper tantrum was".

Moon, he said, had little choice but to pursue any policy that avoids full-scale conflict.

"Trump says 'everybody plays games'. Moon Jae-in is not playing a game: he must keep his people safe from war," he wrote on Twitter.

UTMOST SECRECY

Unlike last month's summit, which was held in front of live TV cameras, Saturday's meeting was much more low-key, taking place in utmost secrecy, with reporters only being told later that the face-to-face had taken place.

Footage released by the Blue House on Twitter, accompanied by a dramatic orchestral score, showed Moon arriving in a convoy of cars and first shaking hands with Kim's sister Kim Yo Jong, who has played a major public role in recent talks with the South, including leading a delegation across the border during February's Winter Olympics.

Saturday's talks are only the fourth time serving leaders of the two Koreas, who remain technically at war, have ever met.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un the second time in recent months at the peace village on the Northern side to discuss the topic of the June 12 summit in Singapore between the U.S. and North Korea, which was cancelled then left with the possibility of happening the day after.