Donald Trump has ordered his secretary of state Mike Pompeo to cancel a planned visit to North Korea because the regime is not making “sufficient progress” over denuclearisation.

The US president's comments, delivered by tweet, amount to the strongest criticism yet of North Korea from Mr Trump since he met the country’s leader Kim Jong-un in June.

Previously Mr Trump has repeatedly played up the success of the talks, saying that North Korea “no longer” posed a nuclear threat and pointing to the fact no missiles had been tested.

Mr Pompeo, who is leading the talks for America, had been due to fly to North Korea next week to hold further talks about securing the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula – something agreed by both sides when the US president met Kim.

However Mr Trump tweeted on Friday: