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A senior State Department official on Friday insisted that North Korea should blink if it wanted to reach an agreement on denuclearization with the United States.
Negotiators from the United States and North and South Korea have begun talks on denuclearization since the June summit in Singapore between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump.
But despite some hopes, the lack of precision on the part of North Korea and the security demands of Pyongyang and other concessions before dismantling its nuclear arsenal have hampered efforts.
"We will not give anything until North Korea does what it says," Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson told reporters in Washington. .
Pyongyang officials must first respect "their obligations in Singapore," she said, referring to their commitment to denuclearize.
"What we want to offer is a future for a nuclear-free peninsula. What we want to offer is the economic livelihood of a North Korea capable of interacting with its neighbors around the world, "she added, warning that" North Korea will have to what she will do.
Thompson's comments are only the latest on what has been a diplomatic roller coaster, with hopes flowing up and down as talks involving Pyongyang, Washington, and Seoul progress, eventually colliding with additional hurdles.
The last hopes of success came on Thursday, when North Korean Kim told South Korean officials that his trust in Trump was "unchanged" and suggested that he would be willing to denuclearize by the end of the year. of Trump's first term.
On Friday, en route to a rally in North Dakota, Trump expressed optimism.
"A letter comes to me, a personal letter from Kim Jong Un," the president told reporters on Air Force One. "I think it's going to be a positive letter."
Still, many US officials remain skeptical, noting that last month Trump had suddenly canceled Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's plans to meet Kim in Pyongyang due to lack of progress.
Pompeo himself acknowledged during a visit to India on Thursday that there was still a lot to do.
"We have not had any nuclear tests, we have not had any missile tests, which we consider a good thing," he said. "But the work of convincing President Kim to make the strategic change we talked about for a better future for the people of North Korea continues."
US intelligence officials are even more suspicious of Pyongyang's repeated commitments to denuclearize.
National Intelligence Director Dan Coats told a conference in Washington on Tuesday that the assessment of North Korea's nuclear intentions by US intelligence services has not changed.
"Kim Jong Un sees nuclear weapons as the key to the regime's survival and as a lever for realizing his long-term strategic ambitions," he said.
Coats also said that, despite some symbolic measures taken by Pyongyang in early June to destroy the entrances to some nuclear test tunnels and begin dismantling other equipment, no signs of further movement had been observed.
Asked Friday on what had led US diplomatic officials to believe that North Korea Kim was going to undergo a denuclearization, Thompson replied, "He said he was going to do it."
"He told the secretary. And he told the president, so we'll keep him to his word, "said Thompson.
