Speed Reads

all eyes on north korea

North Korea calls Pence's comments 'ignorant,' threatens to pull out of summit

North Korea is again threatening to not attend a summit next month with President Trump, with the country's vice minister of foreign affairs blasting Vice President Mike Pence for his "ignorant" comments comparing North Korea to Libya.

North Korea's state news agency KCNA on Thursday quoted Choe Son Hui as saying North Korea will "neither beg the U.S. for dialogue nor take the trouble to persuade them if they do not want to sit together with us. Whether the U.S. will meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown is entirely dependent upon the decision and behavior of the United States."

Pence made his remarks during an interview with Fox News on Monday, saying it would be a "mistake" for North Korea to "play" Trump, and Washington could return to the "Libya model." In 2004, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi made a deal with the U.S. to give up his nuclear weapons, and in 2011, after being forced out of power, he was captured and brutally killed.