DPRK cancels talks with ROK, threatens to scrap US summit over drills

World Today

DPRK Kim

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea cancelled talks with the Republic of Korea in response to military drills carried out between ROK and the United States, Yonhap reported Wednesday (local time).

According to the report, DPRK’s Central News Agency (KCNA) stated that the air force drills being carried out between ROK and the United States are a “rehearsal for invasion of the North and a provocation.”

The talks scheduled for Wednesday were planned to discuss follow up actions following the historic summit that took place between DPRK’s leader Kim Jong Un and ROK’s president Moon Jae-in.

The DPRK has also threatened to pull out of the upcoming Trump summit over the military drills.

“This exercise targeting us, which is being carried out across South Korea, is a flagrant challenge to the Panmunjom Declaration and an intentional military provocation running counter to the positive political development on the Korean Peninsula,” the KCNA report said. “The United States will also have to undertake careful deliberations about the fate of the planned DPRK-U.S. summit in light of this provocative military ruckus jointly conducted with the South Korean authorities.”

In response to the DPRK’s announcement, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert stated “We will continue to plan the meeting,” adding there has been “no notification” that the DPRK plans to cancel the summit.

The cancelled talks with ROK were due to take place on the southern side of the truce village of Panmunjom, where the two Korea leaders had called for a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War, and a plan to begin a “complete denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula.

With information from Yonhap. Story is developing. Check back for updates.