US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday he was hopeful nuclear talks between the US and North Korea would resume, just hours after the North, which repeated missiles tests this month, threatened to repay pains the US had caused its people.

“We hope to sit with the North Korean leadership again and discuss how to bring about a brighter future for its people,” he said.

The top US diplomat said he remembered well when President Donald Trump and leader Kim Jong-un exchanged promises on Pyongyang’s denuclearization and the outlook for a brighter future for the North Korean people two years ago at their first summit in Singapore.

But, Pompeo reiterated his earlier position that UN sanctions on the North would remain in place. Following a teleconference with the G-7 countries’ foreign ministers the previous week, he advised keeping pressure on the North to halt its nuclear and missile programs.

The North slammed the US shortly after, saying Pompeo’s remarks showed the US was not interested in ending a “countdown of confrontation,” in a statement attributed to its unidentified Foreign Ministry director in charge of nuclear negotiations with Washington.

“However outstanding or solid the intimacy was between the two leaders, Washington’s anti-Pyongyang policy isn’t open to change,” the director said. The North often accuses the US of supporting its North Korea policy based on sanctions alone.

Meanwhile, Pompeo said the US offered direct assistance to the North to help fight COVID-19. He claimed it had done so through the World Food Bank at the onset of the global health crisis. Pyongyang would see the humanitarian assistance it needs, he said.

By Choi Si-young (siyoungchoi@heraldcorp.com)