The surprising news broke in Washington.

In a letter to Kim Jong Un, U.S. President Donald Trump blamed the cancellation on “tremendous anger and open hostility” in a recent statement by the DPRK.

The statement from a DPRK official warned of a “nuclear showdown” with the United States and renewed a threat to pull out of the summit.

CGTN’s Jack Barton in Seoul and Nathan King at the White House have this report.

To discuss:

• Brian Becker focuses on U.S.-DPRK relations.
• Song Zhang is the Washington bureau chief for Shanghai Wen Hui Daily.
• John Sitilides is a Global Risk Analyst and consultant to the U.S. State Department.
• Dennis Wilder served as a special assistant to the President and senior director for East Asian Affairs at the National Security Council under U.S. President George W. Bush.

For more:

South Korea's Moon Jae-in says he's 'perplexed' by Trump's decision to cancel summit with Kim https://t.co/iKNSowzPeh pic.twitter.com/NCAPU5kmyx

— Al Jazeera Breaking News (@AJENews) May 24, 2018