Washington: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday said that North Korea is continuing to produce fuel for nuclear bombs in spite of its pledge to denuclearize. But the Secretary stressed on the Trump administration’s progress in talks with Pyongyang.

When questioned about North Korea’s continuation of making bomb fuel, Pompeo replied responded to Democratic Senator Ed Markey by saying: “Yes, that’s correct … Yes, they continue to produce fissile material.”

Pompeo declined to reply a query over North Korea continuing to pursue submarine-launched ballistic missiles or whether the nuclear programme was advancing generally.

He commented over the query by saying that he would be very happy to answer the latter question if needed in a classified setting, but declined public statements over the issue by saying that it would not help “a complex negotiation with a difficult adversary.”

Pompeo argued in defense of his remark what he termed progress in talks with North Korea that started from an unprecedented June 12 summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in which were sometimes testy exchanges with skeptical lawmakers from both parties.

He said the United States was maintaining a “patient diplomacy” to make North Korea give up its nuclear weapons, but on the other side, the U.S. would not let the process “drag out to no end.”

Getting into the details on his July 5-7 visit to North Korea, Pompeo said that he had pressed on the need for “productive” discussions with his North Korean interlocutor, Kim Yong Chol.

He said that Trump remained optimistic about the future prospects for North Korean denuclearization, but Kim is required to follow through all his summit commitments.

He said Trump remained upbeat about the prospects for North Korean denuclearization, but Kim needed to follow through on his summit commitments.

Pompeo clarified that US-North Korea policy was guided by a simple principle stated by Trump on July 17 that “diplomacy and engagement are preferable to conflict and hostility.”

US President has expressed his satisfaction over the summit by saying that his meeting with Kim was a success and went on to say a day after that North Korea no longer posed a nuclear threat. But in spite of all these, questions have been arising about Pyongyang’s readiness to give up a nuclear weapons programme that threatens the United States.

There was a commitment from North Korean President Kim to work towards denuclearization but Pyongyang did not tell the details about how it might fulfill its commitment.

On July 7, Pompeo left Pyongyang by saying that he had made considerable progress over key issues, but hours later North Korea accused his delegation of making “gangster-like” demands.

Pompeo later reiterated his earlier statement that North Korea had agreed to denuclearize. However, he did give any response when asked by Senator Bob Menendez whether Pyongyang agreed with U.S. definition of denuclearisation, except to say that he was fully confident North Korea got his point.

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