North Korean media slams Pence amid reports of canceled secret meeting

North Korean media Wednesday criticized U.S. Vice President Mike Pence's visit to South Korea for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics amid reports that the North had canceled a meeting with him.


The North's Rodong Sinmun daily criticized Pence and Japanese leader Shinzo Abe's visit to Pyeongchang as a "disgusting, confrontational display to ruin the improvement of inter-Korean relations and fulfill its ambition to suppress the DPRK."

Commenting on Pence's meeting with North Korean defectors and a visit to Cheonan Memorial Hall, the paper said the vice president had "slandered away at the North's highly esteemed state system with unspeakable insults" and "instigated anti-DPRK controversy among the South Korean conservatives."

The daily also blasted Pence's meeting with South Korean officials.

"He only unloaded confrontational verbal abuse full of lunacy such as 'abandoning nuclear weapons' and 'maximum pressure' -- unsuited to the mood of the Olympics," it said.

The article was published as U.S. media reported Tuesday that the Pence had initially planned to hold secret talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's sister Kim Yo Jong on Feb. 10, during the Pyeongchang Olympics.

However, the North canceled just two hours before the scheduled meeting, the Washington Post reported.
 (UPI)
 21/2/18
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