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South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump (R) deliver a joint statement from the Rose Garden of t...

South Korean president ‘very perplexed’ over canceled U.S.-North Korea summit

South Korean President Moon Jae-in says he’s “very perplexed” that the U.S.-North Korea summit won’t go ahead as planned.

Yonhap news agency cited Moon as urging direct talks between President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

Moon was speaking at an emergency meeting of his top security officials in Seoul after Trump announced he was canceling the summit because of North Korean “hostility.”

Moon was quoted as saying: “I am very perplexed and it is very regrettable that the North Korea-U.S. summit will not be held on June 12.”

He said, “Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the establishment of permanent peace are historic tasks that can neither be abandoned nor delayed.”

Moon met Trump in Washington on Tuesday, but appeared caught unaware by the president’s decision Thursday.

READ MORE: Did Trump’s decision to cancel U.S.-North Korea summit kill chances of talks for good?

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