North Korea Threatens to Cancel Nuclear Summit with US

North Korea has backpedaled away from its previous promises to dismantle its nuclear program, saying that joint air force drills between the US and South Korea were “ruining the diplomatic mood.”

On Wednesday North Korea canceled planned talks with South Korea and threatened to potentially turn their backs on what would be a historic summit with US President Donald Trump in Singapore. The shocking move was announced by North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (the KCNA), and came just hours before the planned North-South meeting at a village on the border between the two warring nations. This is an unfortunate setback in the attempts to thaw relations between them, as they officially remain at war.

KCNA went on to warn the United States that “provocative military racket” is putting the June 12 Singapore summit in jeopardy. The agency is referring to operation Max Thunder, a joint US-South Korean military exercise that began this year in April. The news agency called the operation an “undisguised challenge” and a “deliberate military provocation.”

North Korea’s First Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kim Gye Gwan, was quoted by KCNA warning that Pyongyang could potentially walk away from the summit with the United States.

“If [the Trump administration] only pushes us into a corner and forces us to give up our nuclear weapons unilaterally, then we will no longer take interest in such a talk and would have to reconsider,” the minister said.

A spokesman for the South Korean Unification Ministry confirmed North Korea’s statement, saying that Seoul “is urging North Korea to come to the talks soon for the sake of peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula.” Despite Pyongyang’s discontent, a South Korean military official confirmed that operation Max Thunder would continue as planned.

Experts say that one of the reasons for this sudden about-face is the lack of coherent US response. “The U.S. and South Korea hold an exercise, which contains some strategic strike elements to it. U.S. officials can’t seem to get on the same page regarding denuclearization and what is required of North Korea,” says analyst Ken Gause.

In addition, North Korea is chafing at the appointment of John Bolton to the position of national security advisor. The hawkish official has continually demanded the “complete verifiable irreversible denuclearization of North Korea,” which Pyongyang is loathed to hear. After all, their strategy is to use their nuclear “might” to force other countries to come to the negotiating table.

Bolton’s plan for North Korea to commit to a Libya-style disarmament is not exactly a tempting proposition for the hermit kingdom. The North Korean government certainly remembers the unceremonious murder of Gaddafi by his political opponents after surrendering his nuclear program. It is unlikely that Bolton, an official that North Korea has called “human scum” when he worked for George W. Bush, would be a suitable candidate to help broker peace on the Korean Peninsula. “We do not hide a feeling of repugnance towards him,” Kim Gye Gwan said.

“This is not an expression of intention to address the issue through dialogue. It is essentially a manifestation of awfully sinister move[s] to impose on our dignified state the destiny of Libya or Iraq, which had been collapsed due to the yielding of their countries to big powers,” the vice minister added. “The world knows…that our country is neither Libya nor Iraq, which have met a miserable fate.”