The President had claimed major progress after meeting North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un at a summit in June. At the summit the two countries agreed to support the “complete denuclearisation” of the Korean Peninsular. However the two sides appear to have very different understandings of what this means.
The North Korean state controlled Korean Central News Agency accused the US of having a “misguided” understanding of the term.
In an English language release it described the claim “North Korea committed itself to complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation” as “something aghast”.
Instead they asserted: “When we refer to the Korean peninsula, we include both the area of North Korea and South Korea where aggressive troops including US nuclear weapons are deployed.”
However, both the US and South Korea deny American nuclear weapons are stationed in the country.
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US nuclear weapons were stationed in South Korea until 1993, when they were withdrawn following a denuclearisation agreement.
Since then there have been calls for the weapons to be reinstated, including by South Korea’s then Defence Minister in 2017.
In September, Trump praised Kim Jong-un as “very open and terrific” and said he expected a second summit meeting to take place in the near future.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said America was continuing to the ‘denuclearisation’ agreement.
Speaking to Kansas based KNSS Radio he said: “We still are working through the execution of Chairman Kim’s commitment to denuclearisation.
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“We are hopeful that in the new year President Trump and Chairman Kim will get together not too long after the first of the year and make even further progress on taking this threat to the United States away from us.”
However, the Secretary of State refused to give a detailed update on the status of the negotiations amidst reports of increased tensions between the two sides.
He commented: “I never talk about the actual discussions we’re having.
“They’re private conversations on how to work our pathway forward toward the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.”