North Korea is unhappy with as it says the US is acting with “alarming” impatience regarding denuclearisation, after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo emphasized the need to maintain full sanctions pressure on Pyongyang.
The differing comments at a security forum in Singapore follow a new UN report which revealed that Pyongyang was going ahead with its nuclear and missile programmes and eluding sanctions through ship-to-ship oil transport.
At historic talks with President Donald Trump in June, North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un made an indefinite commitment to “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula”; which is a far cry from long-standing U.S demands for total, verifiable and permanent disarmament.
Though US officials have publicly been confident about the agreement, Pyongyang seems to have made little progress, and concerns have grown about some U.N member states easing sanctions.
