The US declares it will not repeat mistakes on the North Korea issue.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks to reporters during the daily press briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington on April 23. Photo: AP

The comments, made by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, appeared to leave open the possibility of easing the US-led “maximum pressure” campaign before North Korea completely gives up its nuclear weapons.

However, Sanders said the US would not make the mistake of previous administrations of believing that North Korea “will do as it is told.” “We have seen some steps in the right direction, but we still have a long way to go,” she said.

North Korea announced on April 21 that it would close its nuclear test site and suspend nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests, a move that Trump hailed as “major progress.” North Korea did not say it would give up its nuclear weapons or scale back production of missiles and related components.

Asked whether the suspension of testing was a positive sign, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on April 23: “Right now, I think there are many reasons to be optimistic that the negotiations will yield results and we will see.”

On April 27, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Mr. Kim will hold a summit at the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas, possibly laying the groundwork for Mr. Trump's meeting with the Pyongyang leader in May or early June. The US and North Korean leaders have not met in the six decades of hostility since the Korean War.

Sanders said the US goal is the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Asked if President Trump would accept anything less than that before lifting sanctions or if he was willing to increase them, she told reporters: “Certainly, no sanctions will be lifted until we see concrete steps by North Korea to denuclearize.”

Last year, the United States, through the United Nations Security Council, targeted North Korea with its toughest international sanctions in response to three long-range missile launches and its most powerful nuclear test. The Trump administration has added to those restrictions unilateral U.S. sanctions against companies conducting illicit trade with North Korea.

This year, Mr. Kim has pivoted from confrontation to diplomacy, and according to South Korea and China, the Pyongyang leader has expressed a commitment to denuclearization. It remains unclear what he wants in return.

Three weeks ago, Trump's hand-picked successor to the US Secretary of State, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, became the highest-ranking US official to visit North Korea in two decades, but the content of Pompeo's discussions with Kim has not been made public.

The most recent nuclear talks between the US and North Korea failed in 2012. The two countries also maintain a state of war as the 1950-1953 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty./.