North Korean officials were a no-show in Singapore last week at a meeting that was supposed to set the stage for President Donald Trump's summit with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, The Washington Times reported.
According to an unnamed White House official, deputy chief of staff Joe Hagin and other U.S. officials were in Singapore for a meeting with North Korean officials that had been set up by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his counterparts in Pyongyang, the news outlet reported.
"They waited and they waited," the senior White House official told the Times. "The North Koreans never showed up. They simply stood us up.”
The snub was part of an ominous recent pattern, the official told the news outlet: North Korea also had promised to let international officials watch Thursday's demolition of its nuclear test but backed out. Instead, they let a group of foreign journalists watch the demolition.
North Korea also promised in early March it would not object to planned joint military exercises between the United State and South Korea, but when they took place last week, Pyongyang vehemently objected, the White House official noted.