South Korean Officials Shocked That President Trump Cancelled The Singapore Summit

South Korean government emergency meeting after President Trump cancelled the Singapore summit. South Korea Blue House

Reuters: Perplexed and disappointed: South Korea's Moon regroups after mediation failure

SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to cancel next month’s summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un came as shock to South Korean officials, who only days ago were publicly predicting a “99.9 percent” chance the meeting would proceed as scheduled.

Already on shaky ground amid stalled talks with North Korea, South Korea’s ability to fulfill its self-assigned role of mediator between Pyongyang and Washington suffered the biggest blow yet when Trump apparently failed to give his allies in Seoul a heads up about his announcement.

The setback follows months of diplomatic progress that led to a historic summit between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in in April.

Read more ....

WNU editor: The AP is questioning the role of South Korea President Moon's "middle man" role .... Canceled Trump-Kim summit tests Moon’s middleman role (AP). But the AP has forgotten that North Korea cut-off ties to Moon a few weeks ago .... North Korea suspends high level talks with South Korea over military drills with US (The Independent) .... so much for being the middle-man.

Update: This is what I call trying to save "face" .... U.S., South Korea to pursue talks between Washington and Pyongyang (Reuters)

Update #2: I agree, but some time will need to pass, and the North Koreans will have to make the first move .... South Koreans expect US-North Korea summit to take place 'eventually' despite cancellation (ABC News).

More News On South Korean Reaction To President Trump Canceling The Singapore Summit

South Korea is scrambling to figure out WTF just happened with the Trump-Kim summit -- VOX
Caught off guard by summit collapse, Seoul tries to play down impact -- SCMP
Disappointment in South Korea as Trump nixes summit with Kim -- Al Jazeera
Analysis - Perplexed and disappointed: South Korea's Moon regroups after mediation failure -- Reuters
Direct communication needed between leaders of North Korea, U.S., South Korea says -- Reuters
Photo hints at the mood in the room as South Korean officials learned Trump canceled the US-North Korea summit -- Business Insider/AOL
'No Nobel Peace Prize for Trump': South Koreans slam cancellation of summit -- Reuters