North Korea Threatens To Withdraw From Trump-Kim Summit If US Would Continue To Insist It To Give Up Nukes

North Korea said it may reconsider holding a summit with the United States if Washington continues to unilaterally insist on North Korea giving up its nuclear programme, the North's state media said on Wednesday.

Citing first vice minister of foreign affairs Kim Kye Gwan, North Korea's central news agency also said the fate of the US- North Korea summit as well as bilateral relations "would be clear" if Washington speaks of a Libya-style denuclearisation for the North.

If the Trump administration "corners us and unilaterally demands we give up nuclear weapons we will no longer have an interest in talks and will have to reconsider whether we will accept the upcoming DPRK-US summit", Kim Kye Gwan said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.

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Washington is pressing for Pyongyang's complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation. But so far the North has not given any public indication of what concessions it is offering.

At a summit with the South's President Moon Jae-in last month, Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his commitment to the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. But the phrase is a diplomatic euphemism open to interpretation on both sides.

"We already expressed our willingness for a denuclearised Korean peninsula and repeatedly declared that the US must end its hostile DPRK policy and nuclear threats as preconditions," the minister Kim said.

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In the past, Pyongyang has demanded the withdrawal of the US troops stationed in the South to protect it from its neighbour, and an end to Washington's nuclear umbrella over its security ally.

It was a "highly sinister attempt to enforce the fate of Libya and Iraq upon the DPRK," Kim said.

"I cannot suppress anger over this US move and it is doubtful whether the US really wants to improve ties with the DPRK through dialogue and negotiation," he said. The North has long said it needs nuclear weapons to protect itself against a US invasion. After giving up his atomic programme, Libyan leader Moamer Khadafi was killed in an uprising backed by NATO bombing.

The statement added US President Donald Trump would remain as a "failed president" if he follows in the steps of his predecessors.

The development followed close on the heels of Pyongyang denouncing the US-South Korean military exercises as a provocation and calling off high-level talks with Seoul.

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A report on North Korea's official KCNA angrily attacked the "Max Thunder" air combat drills, which it said involved US stealth fighters and B-52 bombers, and appeared to mark a break in months of warming ties between North and South Korea and between Pyongyang and Washington.

The "Max Thunder" drills, aimed at "boosting the capability of pilots", would go on as planned and were not aimed at attacking a third party, the South's defence ministry said.

Any cancellation of the June 12 summit in Singapore, the first meeting between a serving US president and a North Korean leader, would deal a major blow to Trump's efforts to score the biggest diplomatic achievement of his presidency.

Trump has raised expectations for a successful meeting even as many analysts have been sceptical of the chances of bridging the gap due to questions about North Korea's willingness to give up a nuclear arsenal that it says can hit the United States.

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The KCNA report called the air drills a "provocation" that went against the trend of warming ties.

"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, referring to a joint statement from an April 27 inter- Korea summit.

"The United States will also have to undertake careful deliberations 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," KCNA said.