SEOUL—Many South Koreans were fuming on Friday after US President Donald Trump canceled a historic summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, feeling they had been cheated of a chance of a lifetime to live in peace.
Trump called off the unprecedented meeting, scheduled for June 12 in Singapore, after months of diplomatic progress had silenced bellicose rhetoric from the two sides and eased fears of a return to war.
“North Korea was in the process of doing everything that had been demanded of it. They even detonated their nuclear test site,” said Eugene Lim, a 29-year-old office worker in Seoul.
“Trump has no interest in peace in our country. Why can’t he just let us, the two Koreas, live in peace?”
North Korea on Thursday “completely dismantled” its Punggye-ri nuclear test ground to “ensure the transparency of discontinuance of nuclear tests,” after blowing up tunnels at the site, it said.
The detonation, which took place in the presence of dozens of international journalists but no independent experts, came after Kim pledged to cease all nuclear and long-range missile tests last month. Kim also released three American prisoners as a gesture of goodwill.
Dozens of university students and women’s rights activists protested in different rallies in Seoul on Friday to denounce Trump, with some punching his face printed on a picket sign and tearing his photograph apart.
‘You Yankee!’
Kim Dong-ho, a 38-year-old employee at a blockchain company, said it wasn’t right to isolate North Korea again when it was making efforts to join the international community.
“After all, those of us living on the Korean peninsula suffer the consequences of your action, you Yankee!” the employee said.
“It feels like Trump just knocked down all the efforts the two Koreas have put forward for the US-North Korea summit,” said Yun Hae-ri, a 25-year-old office worker. “I don’t think Trump is doing the right thing if he wants to win the Nobel Peace Prize.”
Trump also warned North Korea that the US military was ready in the event of any reckless acts, and when asked if the summit cancellation increased the risk of war, he replied: “We’ll see what happens.”
North remains open
South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who worked hard to help set up the summit and urged Trump at a White House meeting on Tuesday not to let a rare opportunity slip away, said he was “perplexed” by the cancellation.
North Korea said it remained open to resolving issues with the United States, “regardless of ways, at any time.”
Pyongyang said Trump’s decision was “unexpected” and “regrettable” but its immediate reaction to the sudden U-turn was conciliatory. “We again state to the US our willingness to sit face-to-face at any time in any form to resolve the problem.”
South Koreans’ perception of North Korea, especially those in their 20s and 30s, has visibly softened after Kim and Moon pledged no more war in their inter-Korean summit in April, according to several polls.
North and South Korea are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. The United States stations 28,500 troops in the South, a legacy of the war.
Asian markets mostly fell on Friday even as traders had already been nervous in recent days after the US president warned he could pull out of the June 12 meeting with the North Korean leader, while also voicing his displeasure at a deal to avert a trade war with China and threaten tariffs on car imports.
Letter from White House
In a letter released by the White House, Trump told Kim he was canceling the summit because of North Korea’s “anger” and “hostility.”
Trump’s letter to Kim, almost plaintive in tone, kept the door open to dialogue, but it also carried a threat evocative of last year when North Korea was honing its ability to target the continental United States with a nuclear-tipped missile. During those tense months, the president, annoyed by bellicose language from Pyongyang, was goading Kim about the size of his nuclear button.
On this occasion, Trump wrote that he was praying to God the United States won’t need to use its “massive and powerful” nukes.
“I think, by and large, the president’s message was polite, although his reference to the US nuclear arsenal looked a little threatening to me,” said Christopher Hill, the lead US negotiator with North Korea under the George W. Bush administration.
The message came after a key aide to Kim hit out at comments from Vice President Mike Pence, saying they were “ignorant and stupid” and warning the talks could be canceled.
However, Trump’s letter added that the talks could still go ahead “at a later date.”
China appeals for patience
Meanwhile, China’s foreign ministry said on Friday that the United States and North Korea should show patience and meet each other halfway, after Trump called off a summit with the North Korean leader scheduled for next month.
Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang made the comment at a daily news briefing, while noting that Trump had said he remained willing to meet with Kim in the future. —REPORTS FROM AFP