Moon, Trump Discuss Pyongyang’s Threat to Cancel US-North Korea Summit

TOKYO (Sputnik) - South Korean President Moon Jae-in held a phone conversation with his US counterpart Donald Trump, during which the two leaders discussed a possible response to Pyongyang’s threat to cancel the June summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Moon’s office said in a statement.

"The two leaders have exchanged views on recent North Korea’s reaction," the statement read.

According to the office, Moon and Trump have also agreed on close cooperation, aimed to successfully hold the US-North Korean summit in June.

The summit has been put at risk when, on May 11, the United States and South Korea launched a two-week annual air combat regional exercise, dubbed Max Thunder, which is considered by Pyongyang a threat to its security.

Reacting the drills, on May 15 North Korea made a decision to cancel ministerial-level talks with Seoul. The next day, North Korean First Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan said North Korea might cancel the summit between Kim and Trump, scheduled for June 12 in Singapore, if Washington continues its anti-Pyongyang hostile policy.

READ MORE: S Korea, US to Go On With Drills Despite Pyongyang Suspending Talks — Ministry

New tensions in diplomatic relations with Pyongyang emerged just weeks after a historic meeting between leaders of North and South Korea on April 27. During the meeting, the sides signed the Declaration for Peace, Prosperity, and Unification on the Korean Peninsula. The document committed the two countries to a nuclear-free peninsula and talks to bring a formal end to the Korean War.