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It appears U.S. diplomacy with North Korea is on hold right now.
President Trump has abruptly called off his Secretary of State's planned visit to Pyongyang,... citing the regime's lack of progress on denuclearization.
Hwang Hojun reports.
The Twitter bomb dropped just a day after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced he was going to visit North Korea next week.
President Trump tweeted on Friday local time that he asked Pompeo not to go to Pyongyang at this time due to the regime's insufficient progress on the issue of denuclearization.
He also criticized China for hampering the process, in reference of the ongoing tariff war between Washington and Beijing.
However, President Trump still sent his regards to Kim Jong-un, ending his tweet by saying he looks forward to seeing him soon.
Pompeo's visit would have been his fourth to North Korea.
The cancellation of Pompeo's trip comes amid rising skepticism on whether the North Korean leader is serious about his commitment to dismantle the regime's nuclear and missile programs.
Since the North Korea-U.S. summit in June, Pyongyang has taken visual steps such as demolishing its only known nuclear test site and its missile engine testing site.
However, experts say they are hard to verify without outside inspection.
Moreover, the International Atomic Energy Agency published a report this week, expressing its quote "grave concern" over North Korea's continued activities at the Yongbyon nuclear site.
Some observers are saying this is another tactic by the Trump administration to put more pressure on North Korea.
In fact, this isn't the first time Trump has scrapped a scheduled meeting with Pyongyang; he called off his Singapore summit with Kim in May,... before hastily rearranging it.
While South Korea's Blue House is yet to respond to the cancelation, it's likely to put more pressure on Seoul as President Moon Jae-in is due to head to Pyongyang in September to hold his third summit with Kim Jong-un.
Hwang Hojun, Arirang News.
