North Korea’s abrasive rhetoric in the past week and verbal attacks against top American officials may have prompted United States President Donald Trump to suddenly cancel his upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, analysts said.

“This is punishment for ‘bad’ behaviour, in terms of the negative tone and abrasive statements that came out,” Dr Graham Ong-Webb, research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, told The Straits Times.