Trump cancels Kim summit even after N Korea destroys nuclear test tunnels

US President Donald Trump on Thursday called off a planned historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, report agencies.

Trump cancelled the summit even after North Korea followed through on a pledge to blow up tunnels at its nuclear test site

Trump said he had made the decision based on the "tremendous anger and open hostility" in a recent North Korean statement.

Mr Trump said it would be "inappropriate" to hold the summit as scheduled in Singapore on June 12.

In a letter to Mr Kim, he said he was very much looking forward to meeting him "some day".

"I was very much looking forward to being there with you. Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have the long-planned meeting," Mr Trump said.

"You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used," he added.

Earlier on Thursday, North Korean official Choe Son-hui dismissed remarks by US Vice-President Mike Pence - who had said North Korea "may end like Libya" - as "stupid".

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was killed by rebels in 2011 after renouncing nuclear weapons eight years earlier.

Mr Choe, who has been involved in several diplomatic interactions with the US over the past decade, said the North would not "beg" for dialogue and warned of a "nuclear showdown" if diplomacy failed.

Earlier North Korea appears to have blown up tunnels at its only nuclear test site, in a move to reduce regional tensions.

Foreign reporters at the Punggye-ri site in the north-east said they had witnessed a huge blast. Pyongyang later said the site had been dismantled.

The move by the North was seen as part of a diplomatic rapprochement with South Korea and the US.

But scientists believe it partially collapsed after the last test in September 2017, rendering it unusable.

Meanwhile, another report adds: UN Secretary-General António Guterres said it was unfortunate that no international experts were on hand when North Korea blew up tunnels at its nuclear test site on Thursday even as he welcomed Pyongyang's reported action.

"It is regrettable that international experts were not invited to witness the site closing," a spokesman for Guterres said in a statement.

Independent inspectors were not allowed to witness the process of the dismantling of the Punggye-ri site in the mountainous region of the country, and some worry it could be easily reversible, the BBC's Laura Bicker reports.

Three tunnels were collapsed in a series of explosions in front of about 20 handpicked international journalists.

Two blasts were reportedly carried out in the morning, and four in the afternoon.