President’s remarks come just hours after Thursday’s talks were postponed between U. S. Secretary of State Pompeo and a top adviser to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un
President Donald Trump says he is in “no rush” to finalize a deal with North Korea and remove sanctions.
“I would love to take the sanctions off, but they have to be responsive too. It’s a two-way street,” Trump said during a lengthy White House news conference Wednesday.
He told reporters he has made more progress with North Korea than any other administration and that he still plans another summit with Kim Jong Un early next year.
Trump spoke just hours after Thursday’s scheduled meeting between U. S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and senior Kim adviser Kim Yong Chol was called off.
Neither side gave any firm reason why the talks were postponed other than State Department spokesman Robert Palladino calling it “purely a matter of scheduling.”
“We’re in a pretty good place right now. We are confident going forward,” Palladino told reporters. “We’re not going to be driven into artificial timelines.”
The talks in New York were largely seen as paving the way for the second Trump-Kim summit. They first met in Singapore in June.
In announcing the now postponed meeting, the State Department said the two men would discuss “making progress on all four pillars of the Singapore Summit joint statement, including achieving the final, fully verified denuclearization” of North Korea.
Kim and Trump signed an agreement in June to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons. However, the two sides have been at odds over the pace of Pyongyang’s efforts to end its nuclear weapons program.
