US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said there will be no sanctions relief for North Korea until it denuclearizes.

Pompeo was pushing back on a report from North Korean state media that said President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un had agreed to a “step-by-step” process. That was interpreted as meaning the US would grant concessions to North Korea along the way despite longstanding US insistence that it would not.

Pompeo said Trump has been “incredibly clear” about the sequencing of the process.

Speaking alongside Japanese and South Korean foreign ministers in Seoul, Pompeo said that “we’re going to get denuclearization.” He said that “only then will there be relief from the sanctions.”