President Donald Trump has cancelled a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un after a week when both sides fell back into the rhetorical brinkmanship that had raised fears of armed conflict on the Korean peninsula.
In a letter to Mr Kim on Thursday, Mr Trump said he would not travel to Singapore for the panned June 12 meeting because of the “tremendous anger and open hostility” recently aimed at Washington from Pyongyang.
“The Singapore summit, for the good of both parties, but to the detriment of the world, will not take place,” Mr Trump wrote. “You talk about nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used.”