The Kimchi Kancellation: North Korea announced that planned talks between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un could be cancelled if the US demands that North Korea give up its nuclear weapons.
A senior official said the North has no interest in “one-sided” talks with the US that are only about giving up nuclear weapons. “If the United States is trying to drive us into a corner to force our unilateral nuclear abandonment, we will no longer be interested in such dialogue,” a statement said.
The statement about nuclear weapons came hours after the North said talks with South Korea could be cancelled because of joint US/South Korea military exercises that the North views as a drill for invasion.
“The United States must carefully contemplate the fate of the planned North Korea-U.S. summit amid the provocative military ruckus that it’s causing with South Korean authorities,” the North said. “We’ll keenly monitor how the United States and South Korean authorities will react.”
The  exercises called Max Thunder involve about 100 aircraft including B-52 bombers and F-22 stealth fighter jets, both of which could deliver nuclear weapons. The North called the exercises an “intended military provocation” and an “apparent challenge.”
The North’s prevarication is not a surprise. Kim Jong-un has a history of reversals. Late yesterday State Department spokeswoman heather Nauert said, “We will continue to go ahead and plan the meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong-un.” The summit is scheduled for June 12 in Singapore.
Between the Lines: Seven women running for the House won Democratic primary races in Pennsylvania yesterday in an effort to crack that state’s all male delegation.
Congressional districts re-drawn by the state’s highest court revealed that Democrats have a chance to pick a handful of seats. The court had thrown out district lines drawn by the Republican legislature to ensure party members would win Congressional seats. No longer.
Peace Train: Palestinians buried their dead yesterday after at least 60 protesters were killed by Israeli forces Monday. The border between Israel and the Gaza strip was largely quiet after six weeks of protests that have cost about 100 Palestinian lives.
Heavy Weather: Two people were killed yesterday as violent storms bringing high winds, heavy rain, and hail swept through the East. Hail the size of golf balls was reported in some areas.
An 11-year old girl in Newburgh, NY was killed when a tree fell on the car she was sitting in. A man was killed by a falling tree in Danbury, Ct.
New York’s Grand Central Station became jammed with thousands of commuters as trains were delayed. Thousands of customers are still without power this morning.
The Numbers Runner: President Trump is touting his slightly rising poll numbers as a major event. Fox News, which is where he gets his information, reported that the Real Clear Politics average of polls has him at 43 percent approval, still well below 50, but Trump grades himself on a curve. He tweeted, “Can you believe that with all of the made up, unsourced stories I get from the Fake News Media, together with the $10,000,000 Russian Witch Hunt (there is no Collusion), I now have my best Poll Numbers in a year. Much of the Media may be corrupt, but the People truly get it!”
He didn’t say that 52.6 percent disapprove of him.
The Big Wedding: Meghan Markle’s father Thomas now says he won’t walk his daughter down the aisle on Saturday in the royal wedding because he’s having heart surgery. Markle’s mother will walk with her. Mr. Markle had previously withdrawn after an embarrassing tabloid photo session, then said he would, then said he wouldn’t. Sounds like she’s better off without him.
The Obit Page: Tom Wolfe, the journalist and novelist who rode the wave of the so-called “New Journalism” of the 1960s and 70s, has died in New York at age 88.
Wolfe wrote some of the most interesting and influential fiction and non-fiction of his times. He brought a novelistic approach to journalism, the New Journalism that was criticized as being part fiction.
Wolfe was the author of the “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,” a book about travels with writer Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters on a psychedelic bus, “Radical Chic” about New York swells mixing with the Black Panthers, and “The Right Stuff,” about the Mercury astronauts. Later he wrote “The Bonfire of the Vanities,” a slice of life in New York in the age of money.
He was known as well for his distinctive attire. He wore a three-piece vanilla-colored tailored suit, pinstriped silk shirt with a high white collar, a watch on a fob, and spats. He described his mode of dress as “Neo-pretentious.”

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