DPRK slams Pence 'ignorant and stupid'

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The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) called US Vice President Mike Pence "ignorant and stupid" for his warnings over a planned summit between its leader with Donald Trump, renewing a threat to cancel the summit as the US president said the fate of the historic talks will be decided next week.

Trump is due to meet his DPRK's counterpart Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12 for high-stake talks aimed at ridding the country of its newly acquired nuclear weapons and improving ties after decades of animosity.

The summit announcement came after months of unusually cordial diplomacy between the historic foes brokered by the Republic of Korea (ROK).

US Vice President Mike Pence / Reuters Photo

But the newfound bonhomie and the meeting's potential success has been thrown into doubt in recent days with both Washington and Pyongyang raising the prospect of canceling the talks and trading threats.

The latest broadside from DPRK came Thursday with Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui lambasting a Monday media interview in which Pence warned Kim Jong Un that it would be a "great mistake" to try and play Trump.

Pence also said DPRK could end up like Libya, whose former leader Muammar Gaddafi was killed by US-backed rebels years after giving up atomic weapons, "if Kim Jong Un doesn't make a deal".

US Vice President Mike Pence attends US First Lady Melania Trump announcement of her "Be Best" children's initiative in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, May 7, 2018. / VCG Photo

"I cannot suppress my surprise at such ignorant and stupid remarks gushing out from the mouth of the US vice president," Choe said in a statement released by the state-run KCNA news agency.

"We will neither beg the US for dialogue nor take the trouble to persuade them if they do not want to sit together with us," she said, adding she would recommend Kim cancel the talks if Washington continues to make such threats.

Similar comments comparing DPRK to Libya from Trump's hawkish National Security Advisor John Bolton caused the first threat by Pyongyang last week to cancel the Singapore meeting.

"Whether the US will meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown is entirely dependent upon the decision and behavior of the United States," she added.

Pompeo: US will drop DPRK talks if deal goes bad

Aides head to Singapore

Politically, Trump has invested heavily in the success of the planned summit, and so privately most US officials, as well as outside observers, believe it will go ahead.

Hand-picked aides, including deputy chief of staff Joe Hagin and deputy national security adviser Mira Ricardel, are traveling to the Southeast Asian city-state designated to host the summit, officials said.

They are expected to meet their DPRK counterparts and iron out details of the Trump-Kim meeting.

US Vice President Mike Pence attends US First Lady Melania Trump announcement of her "Be Best" children's initiative in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, May 7, 2018. / VCG Photo

But Trump has also become increasingly lukewarm about meeting Kim, teasing his commitment to talks as keenly as any of his "The Apprentice" season finales.

"On Singapore we'll see. It could very well happen," he said Wednesday, adding cryptically: "Whatever it is, we'll know next week."

Trump enthusiastically embraced the idea of talks earlier this year, the first-ever meeting between a US president and a leader of DPRK.

But as the date draws nearer, the yawning gulf in expectations between the two sides is coming into sharp relief.

Trump shakes hands with Moon Jae-in during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, May 22, 2018. / VCG Photo

Washington has made it clear it wants to see the "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization" of the DPRK.

But Pyongyang has vowed it will never give up its nuclear deterrence until it feels safe from what it terms US aggression.

Some analysts have suggested both sides still want to meet in Singapore but are playing hardball in the run up to the summit to leverage a better negotiation position.

Trump: Meeting with Kim 'may not work out for June 12'

PR battle

Ostensibly the Trump-Kim talks will be about peace on the Korean Peninsula and DPRK's nuclear and ballistic weapons.

But even before talk of test freezes, decommissioning or inspections, Washington and Pyongyang are engaged in a public relations battle.

Pompeo, who has met personally with Kim, said whether the summit goes ahead is now up to DPRK.

DPRK leader Kim Jong Un shakes hands with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Pyongyang, May 9, 2018. / Reuters Photo

"That decision will ultimately be up to Chairman Kim," he told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday. "He asked for the meeting; the president agreed to meet with him. I'm very hopeful that that meeting will take place."

His remarks reflect an effort to perhaps lay the groundwork for blame should the talks fail.

As part of its own charm offensive, DPRK invited some foreign journalists to witness the slated destruction of the isolated regime's nuclear test site.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (L), DPRK leader Kim Jong Un (C) and US President Donald Trump (R) / Reuters Photo

The gesture, which experts agree would do little to curb DPRK's long-term nuclear capabilities, is meant to signal that the regime is serious about change.

Pyongyang said it planned to "completely" destroy the Punggye-ri facility in the country's northeast when it made the surprise announcement earlier this month.

The demolition is due to take place sometime between Thursday and Friday, depending on the weather.

(Top Photo: Trump and Pence stand for the National Anthem during a swearing-in ceremony for Gina Haspel as director of the Central Intelligence Agency at CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia on May 21, 2018. / VCG Photo)

Source(s): AFP