Washington: United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington D.C. will not put a timeline on negotiations with North Korea but will instead constantly reassess latter’s commitment to denuclearization.
“I am not going to put a timeline on it, whether that’s two months, six months, we are committed to moving forward in an expeditious moment to see if we can achieve what both leaders set out to do,” Yonhap quoted Pompeo as saying.
This came amid the two countries prepare to hold working-level talks after the historic summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore.
US will “constantly reassess” progress in the negotiations to determine if they should continue, CNN reported.
“We hope that we will have an ongoing process of making progress,” he said.
Earlier it was decided that before the end of Trump’s term, the North’s denuclearisation would be achieved by 2020, as Washington wants to see the dismantlement happening as soon as possible.
However, Pyongyang has insisted on a phased and synchronous process.
Trump and Kim, on June 12 signed a joint agreement, according to which Kim committed to ‘complete denuclearisation of Korean Peninsula’ a while Trump pledged ‘security guarantees’ to the North.
ANI