The US is not ready to lift any sanctions against North Korea, the State Department has announced, just as Donald Trump said he is in “no rush” to seek compromise ahead of his “exciting” summit with Kim Jong-un next week.

“We have been clear on sanctions. These are the world’s sanctions and that is something...that will be continued to be maintained until we’ve achieved our final result of fully, finally verified denuclearization,” State Department spokesman Robert Palladino told reporters Tuesday.

Despite the much-touted upcoming talks, it seems like sanctions will stay in place indefinitely, as Trump himself confessed to being in “no rush” to reach any compromise. “There’s no testing. As long as there is no testing, I’m in no rush. If there’s testing, that’s another deal,” he said in the Oval Office on Tuesday. “I’d just like to see ultimately denuclearization of North Korea.”

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The US leader repeatedly praised himself for singlehandedly ‘averting’ a war with Pyongyang, all thanks to his so-called maximum pressure policy of economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation, mixed with extremely belligerent rhetoric and threats towards North Korea.

After their first face-to-face meeting in Singapore last June, which took place after a historic inter-Korean summit and Kim’s talks with Xi Jinping in China, the US and North Korean leaders agreed to work towards the denuclearization of the peninsula in exchange for sanctions relief and security guarantees.

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While Pyongyang has since stopped testing ballistic missiles or nuclear bombs, the Americans continue to insist the country's nuclear program must be fully dismantled before they deliver on their part of the deal. With progress stalled since the first summit, the US special representative, Stephen Biegun, flew to Hanoi, Vietnam, on Tuesday trying to work out last-minute “concrete deliverables” which can be presented to the international community as yet another exemplary victory of Trump’s foreign policy.

“I think next week’s going to be very exciting,” Trump said, without elaborating. “I think a lot of things will come out of it.”

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