Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump is signaling an openness to a "phase-in" to potential denuclearization of North Korea rather than demanding the country immediately cease its nuclear weapons program.

Speaking in an interview with Fox News that aired Thursday, Trump said he'd "like to have it done immediately, but physically, a phase-in may be a little bit necessary. It would have to be a rapid phase-in but I'd like to see it done at one time."

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, however, has said that denuclearization efforts can't be extended through an incremental approach that rewards North Korea on every step its takes.

"The model that we have laid forth is a rapid denuclearization, total and complete, that won't be extended over time," Pompeo said Wednesday in testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The President made similar comments in the Oval Office Tuesday, declining to rule out the possibility that North Korea's denuclearization could be the result of an incremental process in which the rogue state is incentivized.

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