North Korea has announced that it is still open to talking with the U.S. after President Trump pulled the plug Thursday on a planned summit in Singapore between himself and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
In a statement from the rogue regime’s state-run Korean Central News Agency on Friday local time, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan said Pyongyang was still willing to have discussions with the U.S. at any time, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency. “We express our willingness to sit down face-to-face with the U.S. and resolve issues anytime and in any format,” he said.
Trump’s declared that he was withdrawing from the summit on June 12 due to North Korea’s recent belligerence and “tremendous anger and open hostility” toward the U.S.
[Related: John Bolton persuaded Trump to cancel summit with Kim Jong Un: Report]
“I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting,” Trump wrote in a letter to Kim on Thursday. Trump also encouraged Kim to call or write him if he had a change of heart.
Sadly, I was forced to cancel the Summit Meeting in Singapore with Kim Jong Un. pic.twitter.com/rLwXxBxFKx
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2018
A senior White House official pinned Trump’s decision of North Korea not showing up for a preparatory meeting in Singapore for the now-canceled summit.
“They just stood us up,” the official said.
The meeting was meant to be a culmination of an effort by the U.S. and South Korea to secure peace in the Korean Peninsula, as well as denuclearization. The campaign appeared to be bearing fruit, as North Korea pledged to refrain from conducting nuclear tests until the summit, and Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in had a historic meeting last month and signed an agreement to reach the “common goal” of denuclearization.
The good feelings seemed to sour when North Korea signaled last week that the planned summit could be in jeopardy and cut communications with the South in protest of a joint U.S.-South Korea military exercise. Pyongyang also indicated it would not get rid of its nuclear weapons.
On Wednesday, North Korea escalated its threat, saying that the summit between Kim and Trump was contingent upon the U.S.’ actions and suggesting a “nuclear-to-nuclear showdown” was possible if plans went awry.
“Whether the U.S. will meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at a nuclear-to-nuclear showdown is entirely dependent upon the decision and behavior of the United States,” Choe Son Hui, North Korea’s vice foreign minister, said in a statement Thursday local time, according to the Korean Central News Agency. “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.”
Hours before Trump nixed the summit, North Korea demolished its nuclear site, which was meant to be a show of good faith to the U.S. before their leaders met.
