Chris Hill, the former US ambassador to South Korea, said the reopening of dialogue between North and South Korea should not be seen as the end to hostile tensions.
Earlier this month, North Korea reopened communications with its neighbours in the South after more than two years agreeing their Winter Olympic athletes will march together under the same unified flag at the opening ceremony in Pyeongchang.
South Korea’s Olympic Games next month will also feature athletes from North and South Korea on a unified team and the face-to-face talks conducted in recent days represent a marked change in relations between the neighbours, who are technically still at war.
The sudden thawing in relations should not inspire the world to let its guard down against North Korea, according to Mr Hill.
He said: “There’ll be a positive feeling that we’ve somehow turned the corner and are heading to a solution.
“But I don’t think by any means North Korea is prepared to denuclearise at this point.”
North Korea fired 23 missiles in 2017 and conducted its largest-ever nuclear test, sparking major concerns among its neighbours about how to rein in Kim Jong-un’s regime.
President Trump and Kim Jong-un exchanged a series of insults and threats over the course of the year and now, Mr Hill believes Pyongyang’s improving ties with Seoul may drive a wedge between the US and South Korea.
He said: “I think what North Korea is trying to achieve with this opening of dialogue with the South is as if to say, ‘Look we have nuclear weapons, we’re not going to get rid of nuclear weapons, but we are prepared to be very good neighbour’.
“It’s an effort to present a sense of normalcy to their country, the fact that they are somehow, in their view, a member of the international community in good standing.”
He said the Kim regime may want to “expose some difference between the outlook between the US and South Korea”.
He added: “I don’t think we’ve seen the last missile launch from North Korea.
“I think some of the goodwill of these Olympics will certainly dissipate over the coming months.
“I think things will get better for the Olympics — or at least I’m hopeful that they will.
“I think there is exactly no chance the North Koreans will abandon their nuclear weapons.
“They’ve only tested their biggest missile once and I expect that they will test it many more times before they have the kind of confidence in it that they want.”