Rep. Meeks Statement on Trump Cancelling N Korea Summit

Washington, DC - Today, U.S. Representative Gregory W. Meeks, senior member of the Foreign Relations committee, issued the following statement regarding President Trump's letter to Kim Jong Un cancelling the North Korean Summit:

"Today's announcement by President Trump, declaring that our summit with North Korea has been canceled, is as unsurprising as it is alarming. Given the rapid deteriorations of talks with North Korea, and the lack of a clear strategy or diplomatic groundwork laid out by this administration in Pyongyang, our North Korean mission was always on the verge of collapse.

"Though I have long cautioned against celebrating these talks too early, it was in my hope, and all our hopes, that an agreement to denuclearize North Korea would be reached through the tireless efforts of President Moon of South Korea. More concerned with spectacle than substance, President Trump undermined that goal by prematurely agreeing to a summit, before the nuances and demands of both parties could be assessed.

"Nothing exemplifies the complexities of these kinds of deals more than the JCPOA, which took years of multilateral negotiations to accomplish. Contrary to what the President has said, diplomacy is hard work. That is why it was so reckless to pull out of the Iran deal, and why the President is now struggling to reach a deal with North Korea.

"I urge President Trump not to give in to more nuclear saber-rattling, but engage North Korea with a more methodic diplomatic approach. Through bilateral relations with President Moon, the cancellation of the summit can be an opportunity to let our State department first work out a framework for a deal.

"An historic meeting of heads of state should be leveraged so as to finalize a deal, not kindle the beginnings of one."