Donald Trump Will Not Meet With Kim Jong Un In June After All

The highly anticipated and historically significant summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is no more. Trump canceled the meeting, which would have been the first between American and North Korean heads of state, in a letter released by the White House on Thursday morning.

The letter follows a recent statement by Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Choe Son Hui calling U.S. Vice President Mike Pence a “political dummy,” according to CNN.

"I was very much looking forward to being there with you. 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. Therefore, please let this letter serve to represent that the Singapore summit, for the good of both parties, but to the detriment of the world, will not take place. 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.”

The rest of the letter can be read in full below, courtesy of the Associated Press.

Had things gone according to plan, Trump and Kim would have met in Singapore on June 12 to discuss diplomatic relations between the two historically antagonistic nations. The goal was to further secure peace in the Korean Peninsula and achieve full denuclearization in the region, per CNN.

North and South Korea recently announced a historic peace treaty that would finally, officially end the Korean War, which has been in a ceasefire since 1953. Afterward, Kim Jong-un extended a diplomatic hand to Trump by sending three American prisoners home from North Korea. Trump thanked Kim for the gesture in the letter canceling the upcoming summit.

The North had vocally grown frustrated in recent weeks with U.S.-South Korean joint military drills. The U.S. eventually relented and canceled a B-52 bomber exercise as a result.

Trump paid lip service to the idea of still eventually meeting with Kim in Thursday’s letter, stating he “felt a wonderful dialogue was building up between you and me.” Still, for the time being, it seems U.S. and North Korean relations are back to where they have been for the past 70 years.