N. Korea reportedly threatens to pull out of U.S. summit

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea canceled a high-level meeting Wednesday with South Korea and threatened also to call off a historic summit planned later this month with the United States due to ongoing military exercises between the South and the U.S., South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.

The two Koreas were set to hold a meeting Wednesday at a border village to discuss setting up military and Red Cross talks to reduce border tension and restart reunions between families separated by the Korean War.

Yonhap says North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that Wednesday’s meeting was canceled and that Pyongyang was questioning whether next month’s summit between North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and President Trump can also take place as planned.

In response, the State Department said Tuesday that “we will continue to plan the meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong Un,” according to spokesperson Heather Nauert.

She mentioned that the military exercises are legal and planned far in advance.

“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 reported.

The two-week military exercise between the U.S. and South Korea started Friday and included about 100 warplanes, Yonhap said.

In March, then-CIA Director and current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told “Face the Nation” that Kim has allowed the U.S. to “continue our exercises on the peninsula something that’s been fought over for decades.” He also made similar remarks the same day on Fox News, saying Kim has “got to continue to allow us to perform our militarily necessary exercises on the peninsula and then he’s got to make sure that he leaves on the table that discussion for denuclearization.”

In March, South Korean National Security Adviser Chung Eui-Yong said Kim “understands that the routine joint military exercises between the Republic of Korea and the United States must continue” after meeting with Mr. Trump at the White House.

CBS News’ Kylie Atwood and Steven Portnoy contributed to this report.