North Korea announced it has canceled a high-level summit with
South Korea and has threatened to cancel its meeting with the
United States over American
military drills with South Korea, Yonhap News said Tuesday, citing KCNA.
KCNA, North Korea's state media outlet, claimed that the military drills were a rehearsal for a potential invasion of the country.
"This exercise targeting us, which is being carried out across South Korea, is a flagrant challenge to the Panmunjom Declaration and an intentional military provocation running counter to the positive political development on the Korean Peninsula," KCNA said, according to Yonhap News. "The United States will also have to undertake careful delibarations about the fate of the planned North Korea-U.S. summit in light of this provocative military ruckus jointly conducted with the South Korean authorities."
A meeting between President Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is also in jeopardy, according to Yonhap News. Trump announced on Thursday that the "highly anticipated meeting" with Kim would take place in Singapore on June 12.
The meeting between officials from the North and South Korea was expected to be a follow-up to the historic summit held last month between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, according to the report.
The pair in late April discussed the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
Wednesday's meeting was reportedly going to be held on the south side of Panmunjom.
The military exercises, dubbed the Max Thunder drills, began on Friday and included roughly 100 warplanes such as F-22 radar-evading fighters, B-52 bombers and F-15K jets, Yonhap reported.