Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
South Korean President Moon Jae-in and President Donald Trump.
- President Donald Trump on Thursday sent a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un cancelling a planned summit that was set to be held in Singapore on June 12. He apparently did not warn South Korea about this decision.
- Experts say this could benefit North Korea and China.
- South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who met with Trump earlier this week to try and save the summit, called an emergency meeting after reportedly being caught by surprise over Trump's decision to cancel the meeting.
President Donald Trump's Thursday decision to cancel his planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un seems to have blindsided South Korea - and experts say this could benefit North Korea and China.
Seoul has worked hard in recent months to improve relations with Pyongyang and work toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who met with Trump earlier this week to try and save the summit, which was set for June 12, called an emergency meeting after reportedly being caught by surprise over Trump's decision to cancel the meeting.
"We are attempting to make sense of what, precisely, President Trump means," Moon's spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said shortly after the news broke of Trump's decision.
The White House was reportedly inspired to pull out of the summit after a senior North Korea official referred to Vice President Mike Pence as a "political dummy" and threatened the US with a "nuclear showdown."
In this context, experts say Trump arguably made the correct decision to cancel the summit, but some still criticized his lack of communication with South Korea and highlighted the potential consequences of his approach.
Trump is 'pushing South Korea into China's arms'
Alexander Vershbow, a fellow at the Atlantic Council and former US ambassador to South Korea, said Trump made a "wise" move.
"While 'wise' is not a word usually used for President Trump, it was wise to cancel the meeting in Singapore," Vershbow said in a statement.
"It has been clear from the outset that there is no common understanding of 'denuclearization' between the United States and North Korea, even after two Pompeo meetings with Kim Jong Un. Nor is there any sign of agreement on the timeline, conditions and incentives for implementation," Vershbow added.
Vershbow said if Trump wants to avoid the mistakes of previous administrations, then "much more diplomatic spadework is needed."
Ian Bremmer, the president and founder of Eurasia Group, told Business Insider that Trump is "pushing South Korea into China's arms."
"Both in the way the meeting was announced and organized and now in the way it was cancelled, Trump has made very clear to the South Koreans that 'America First' is very different from South Korea first," Bremmer said.
As a result of Trump's approach to this issue, Bremmer said South Korea now has a "much better" relationship with Pyongyang than Trump does and "they will be reluctant to squander it," noting this also "works very well" for the Chinese government. China is North Korea's top trading partner and most important ally.
"Between this, the [Trans-Pacific Partnership] pull out, and Trump's approach to trade, the big beneficiary of Trump in Asia is [Chinese President] Xi Jinping," Bremmer said.
Former US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power expressed similar sentiments, tweeting that Trump's apparent lack of warning to South Korea showed "astounding disrespect for one of the closest, most steadfast allies of the US."
"This is not just about blindsiding Moon-alliances w/ democracies depend on public support to thrive. How are South Koreans supposed to interpret this?" Powers added.
In an op-ed for Axios, Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, contended that cancelling the meeting was the correct choice under the circumstances.
Haass said there was "no way" the summit would have been a success if Trump was aiming for North Korea to agree to full denuclearization.
"Better that the summit was postponed than to have ended up in dramatic failure, which would have led some to conclude (incorrectly) that diplomacy had been tried and failed, leaving a dangerous and costly war as the only U.S. alternative," Haass said, while adding that the cancellation highlights the Trump administration's lack of a "viable" strategy when it comes to North Korea.
The summit could still happen, but a lot is up in the air
Trump has left the door open for the summit to still occur, and the tone of his letter was relatively diplomatic, but it seems the US will require major concessions and assurances from North Korea to salvage the meeting.
"It's possible that the existing summit could take place, or a summit at some later date. Nobody should be anxious; we have to get it right," Trump said Thursday.
The US still has no ambassador to South Korea, hence Trump's choice to put the summit with Kim up in the air like this comes at a particularly shaky time in relations between Seoul and Washington.