Last Tuesday, Donald Trump wrote on Twitter that he had a “more powerful nuclear button” than Kim Jong-un in response to threats from the Hermit Kingdom.
CIA director Mike Pompeo said the tweet along with statements by the US state institutions made Kim Jong-un back down.
He said: “He is looking for a foothold to walk himself back. This would but entirely consistent with his historical activity. When he sees the threat, he tries to pacify it.
“And you can be sure that this administration is not going to fall prey to the same trap that previous administrations did.”
On Thursday, Trump praised his firm position and his role in the thawing of tensions between Pyongyang and Seoul, which he called a “good thing”.
The talks between the rivals are in relation to the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in South Korea to discuss “cooperation” and athletes’ participation.
Trump’s tweet was in response to North Korea’s supreme leader boasting he has a “nuclear button on his desk”.
President Trump tweeted: “North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un just stated that the ‘nuclear button is on his desk at all times’.
“Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a nuclear button, but it is a much bigger and more powerful one than his, and my button works.”
Trump hit out with the withering attack after Kim used his annual address in Pyongyang to try and strike fear into the US.
He said: “The entire United States is within range of our nuclear weapons, and a nuclear button is always on my desk. This is a reality, not a threat.”
Kim also called for his country to “mass-produce warheads and ballistic missiles”.
The dictator also declared that North Korea had reached full nuclear force in 2017 and called for the mass-production of nukes and missiles in the year ahead as tensions continue to rise with the US.
He said: “We achieved the goal of completing our state nuclear force in 2017.
”We need to mass-produce nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles and accelerate their deployment.”
The tyrant also warned Trump to stay out of the talks with South Korea.
State-run news agency KCNA news agency published an editorial insisting bilateral relations were an “internal matter of the Korean people” that should be pursued without foreign involvement “which would only create complexity in problem-solving”.
The article also warned against moves to block the talks through “improper pretexts and legal and institutional tools” and branded such efforts a “deceptive” gambit to misguide public opinion at home and abroad.
KCNA said: “Efforts to improve bilateral ties can come to fruition only when the two sides work together based upon co-operation among Korean people.
“They should not be bound by the past and the will to improve relations should be backed by action.”