Tough sanctions will remain on North Korea until its complete denuclearisation, the US secretary of state says, apparently contradicting the North's view that the process agreed at this week's summit would be phased and reciprocal.
US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un issued a joint statement after their meeting in Singapore this week that reaffirmed the North's commitment to "work toward complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula", while Trump "committed to provide security guarantees".
Trump later told a news conference he would end joint US-South Korean military exercises.
"President Trump has been incredibly clear about the sequencing of denuclearisation and relief from the sanctions," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters after meeting South Korea's president and Japan's foreign minister in Seoul.
"We are going to get complete denuclearisation. Only then will there be relief from the sanctions," he said.
North Korean state media reported on Wednesday that Kim and Trump had recognised the principle of "step-by-step and simultaneous action" to achieve peace and denuclearisation on the Korean peninsula.
The summit statement provided no details on when North Korea would give up its nuclear weapons program or how the dismantling might be verified.
Sceptics of how much the meeting achieved pointed to the North Korean leadership's long-held view that nuclear weapons are a bulwark against what it fears are US plans to overthrow it and unite the Korean peninsula.
However, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said the world, through the summit, had escaped the threat of war, echoing Trump's upbeat assessment of his meeting with Kim.
Pompeo insisted North Korea was committed to giving up its nuclear arsenal but said it would "be a process, not an easy one".
Kim understood getting rid of his nuclear arsenal needed to be done quickly and there would only be relief from stringent UN sanctions on North Korea after its "complete denuclearisation", Pompeo said.
Also on Thursday, North and South Korea held their first military talks in more than a decade.
Australian Associated Press
