"North Korea dangled a meeting in hopes of the vice president softening his message, which would have ceded the world stage for their propaganda during the Olympics," said Nick Ayers, the vice president's chief of staff, while also pointing to the specific events Pence held to highlight human rights abuses by Pyongyang. "North Korea would have strongly preferred the vice president not use the world stage to call attention to those absolute facts or to display our strong alliance with those committed to the maximum pressure campaign. But as we've said from Day One about the trip: this administration will stand in the way of Kim's desire to whitewash their murderous regime with nice photo ops at the Olympics."

Source: Los Angeles Times February 21, 2018 01:23 UTC