Late last week, U.S. President Donald Trump put the brakes on diplomacy with North Korea. Only a day after his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced he would be visiting Pyongyang this week, Trump announced on twitter the trip had been called off. It was a move that not only caught his own officials off-guard, but also other players like South Korea and China. Are negotiations really at that much of a standstill, or is this another Trump 'Art of the Deal' negotiation tactic? We'll explore those questions with our expert guest in the studio, right after this wrap-up of Trump's announcement by Hwang Ho-jun.
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.
Hwang Hojun, Arirang News.