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Well, this is the summit that no one thought was ever going to happen. And indeed, it is not happening. This morning, Donald Trump cancelled his proposed meeting with Kim Jong Un, saying that the North Koreans' language was simply inappropriate.
And of course, in the past week, purple invective has been flying across the Pacific again. The North Koreans called his vice-president a political dummy. They talked about their feelings of repugnance for John Bolton, Mr Trump's national security adviser. And Mr Trump clearly feels there's been such a breakdown in a really quite extraordinary sense of goodwill that had built up that there's no longer any sense in holding a summit if it's clear there's not going to be a positive outcome.
We also heard from secretary of sate Mike Pompeo today. Now he's the only person in the cabinet who has actually gone and met Mr Kim. He's now been to North Korea twice, first as CIA director, and then as secretary of state. And he said that the North Koreans had actually stopped responding to the US efforts to develop preparatory teams that would really get this summit on track. And so it's really quite humiliating that the North Koreans have stonewalled the Americans. It's quite a big power play. And this really always has been something of a game of face.
What's interesting is that Mr Trump hasn't returned to his own invective. We know full well that Trump can talk about unleashing fire and fury on North Korea. He's before referred to Mr Kim as Little Rocket Man. But this time, he was being contrite, and some might even say, somehow sycophantic in his withdrawal letter.
He praised Mr Kim, saying that he devoted time, patience, and effort to trying to get these talks off the ground. He respected the gesture of goodwill that had led to North Korea releasing three Americans who had been held hostage in good health back to the Americans. And he also said that the two had built up a wonderful dialogue. And Mr Trump really seems to like the idea of the two of them getting on as personalities and thinks that this can potentially unlock a great global dilemma and trauma, which is North Korea's nuclear capability and its ability to hold the US at risk, which the US has said it simply won't let stand.
