North Korea disappointed with US unilateral demands, like "robbery"

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and senior North Korean ruling party official Kim Jong-chol resume talks after a break in Pyongyang on July 7. Photo: AFP/Getty

In a statement issued by a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman and carried by the Korean Central News Agency, North Korea criticized the United States for seeking unilateral and coercive denuclearization from Pyongyang.

The statement came hours after the US Secretary of State wrapped up a two-day visit to Pyongyang to outline measures to implement the June 12 summit agreement in Singapore, where leaders agreed to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

“We had expected that the US side would come with effective measures for building trust in line with the spirit of the DPRK-US summit, and we considered providing something corresponding to them,” the unnamed spokesman said.

“The US has only come with unilateral and robber-like demands such as CVID, declarations and verifications that go against the spirit of the DPRK-US summit,” he added, calling the discussions “truly disappointing.”

CVID stands for complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear program, a demand Washington has frequently made of Pyongyang.

The spokesman clearly rejected the US demand and reiterated Pyongyang's call for a "phased" and "synchronized" approach, asserting that it is the shortest way to realize a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.

“It would be the shortest path toward realizing the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula to boldly break away from the failed methods of the past, promote completely new approaches, and seek to resolve issues one by one based on trust and in a phased and synchronous manner,” he said.