5:00 a.m. in the east. a sobering reality check for the trump administration courtesy of north korea. state media declaring pyongyang will not be pushed into a corner on abandoning the nukes while threatening to cancel the summit with president trump in singapore next month. the kim regime suspending talks with south korea that were scheduled for today. the reason well, u.s./south korea drills already scheduled that north korea considers provocative. there was such goodwill and such a rapid improvement of relations and developments on the korean peninsula and with the united states and then this. this feels like the north korea of several months ago. absolutely. and we just heard a statement from the south korean president s office, trying to call this growing pains. the fact that north korea put out overnight here in asia a
decade ago, calling the joint military exercises that the south korea and united states are doing, calling it a provocation. also saying that the u.s. has to think twice if it s going to continue along this path. whether or not it wants to actually have a summit with north korea in singapore next month. and all the more striking because less than 24 hours ago, north korea was inviting south korean journalists to attend what it says will be a ceremony next week for the dismantling of its main nuclear testing facility. the jury is still out, is this a bargaining tactic or is this a sign that the diplomatic thaw we have seen in recent months may be coming to an end? once again, all eyes on the president s twitter feed. ivan watson, thanks. let s go live to washington, bring in cnn politics digital
director, zachary wolf. will the president say something in response? the counterpuncher in chief, what do you think? well, we know the guy likes to tweet and this is clearly what is in his what he s seeing on cable news. so i wouldn t rule it out. but, you know, he said so much already about north korea, about sort of raising expectations for this summit. it s something he essentially needs and canceling the iran nuclear deal last week, he kept pointing over to this and saying i m going to make a much better deal. so he s extremely invested in making this happen. how he does that, we ll just have to see. president moon from south korea is at the white house the 22nd. what do we expect that north korea wants out of this? some type of negotiating? well, i mean, there was some criticism when the you know, the beginnings of this were happening. that what north korea essentially wanted was this seat
at the on the world stage with the white house. they got that. so what next they might want, you know, i think we ll have to let that play out. yeah. the white house yesterday issued a statement midday, so after the news of the cancellation of the north korean/south korean summit for today, for this week, the white house said we are aware of the south korean media report. the united states will look at what north korea has said independently and continue to coordinate closely with our allies. you know, since this sort of threat of backing out of the talks with the u.s., north korea and the u.s. there s been radio silence here. so one wonders what the response will be from the white house today. let s move on to the gop luncheon yesterday. the president held forth, a policy luncheon, and no mention of what the media is asking about, an apology for john mccain and zte. this china trade issue.
series of pretty strongly worded statements saying that the u.s. has to think twice if it wants to have a summit with north korea while conducting these joint military exercises. right now taking aim at the white house national security adviser john bolton who a top north korean diplomat described as repugnant because he compared north korea as a nuclear armed state with libya in the early stages of its nuclear weapons development when it agreed to disarm its weapons with the u.s. and essentially saying that north korea will not be backed into a corner. it will not be bought off with promises of economic development in exchange for nuclear disarmament. very hard to tell whether or not this is just a bargaining tactic but in the short term north korea canceled high level talks