Trump axes summit with North Korea due to Pyongyang's 'open hostility'

US President Donald Trump on Thursday released a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that effectively cancels their planned summit in Singapore on 12 June.

The letter adds a twist to recent attempts to move diplomatically towards the denuclearisation of the Hermit Kingdom and said the cancellation of what would have been a historic meeting between the two leaders was "for the good of both parties, but to the detriment of the world."

In the letter, Trump wrote: "Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting."

The move appears to be in retaliation to recent statements by the North Korean leadership which have expressed outrage at the implication the 'Libyan model' could be employed in North Korea.

The term refers to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's dismantling of his own nuclear weapons programme in exchange for the lifting of sanctions which was followed eight years later by Gaddafi’s capture and public execution at the hands of Western-backed Libyan rebels.

Appearing on Fox News on Wednesday, US Vice President Mike Pence said: "You know, as the president made clear, this will only end like the Libyan model ended if Kim Jong-un doesn't make a deal."

In response, North Korean Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Choe Son Hui, quoted by the state-run news agency, said of Pence on Thursday: "I cannot suppress my surprise at such ignorant and stupid remarks gushing out from the mouth of the US vice-president."

Choe iterated that the Pyongyang would not "beg" for the summit to take place and threatened the possibility of nuclear action if diplomacy was unsuccessful.

Trump’s letter, however, said: "you talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used."

The President left the ball in Kim’s court by urging the leader to "not hesitate" to call or write if he had a change of heart.