Alwaght- North Korean officials have canceled at the last minute a meeting with the US Vice President Mike Pence on the sidelines of the Winter Olympics in South Korea, American officials said on Tuesday.
"North Korea dangled a meeting in hopes of the Vice President softening his message, which would have ceded the world stage for their propaganda during the Olympics,” Pence’s chief of staff, Nick Ayers, said in a statement.
Refusal by North Korean officials, including leader Kim Jong Un’s sister, to visit Pence came after the American Vice president intensified anti-Pyongyang rhetoric and renewed calls for more sanctions on the Asian nation.
Pence’s office, claimed that Korean leaders walked away over Trump's determination to “stand in the way of Kim's desire to whitewash their murderous regime with nice photo ops at the Olympics.”
“Perhaps that's why they walked away from a meeting or perhaps they were never sincere about sitting down,” Nick Ayers, the vice president’s chief of staff, told the American media on Tuesday.
Pence arrived in South Korea at a time when the Trump administration is applying every effort to downplay the significance of the recent thaw between the two Koreas that came about as a result of the “Peace Olympics.”
While initially denying intentions to meet with the North Korean delegation, Pence’s team apparently worked relentlessly hoping to break the ice with the ceremonial head of state, Kim Yong-nam, and Kim Yo Jong, the younger sister of Kim Jong Un. After all, the vice president was seated just a few feet away from Kim Yo Jong during the opening ceremonies, but the North Koreans called off the February 10 meeting two hours before it was set to start, a US official said.
Just before arriving to South Korea on February 8, Pence made a stop in Japan where he unveiled Washington's plan to impose its “toughest and most aggressive” economic sanctions against Pyongyang, promising to continue to isolate North Korea until it “abandons its nuclear and ballistic missile programs once and for all.” Once in Korea, Pence continued to show hostility to North Korea, meeting with defectors and calling for more economic pressure against the North.
