Trump hints N. Korea negotiations will be long process

WASHINGTON, July 13 (Yonhap) -- U.S. President Donald Trump hinted Friday that negotiations to dismantle North Korea's nuclear weapons program could take longer than hoped for.

Trump was speaking at a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May in Buckinghamshire, England, during which he touched on North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile problem.

"We're doing very well. You saw the letter yesterday, and we're doing very well," he said, referring to a letter he received from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

"Look, we haven't had nuclear testing. We haven't had missile launches. We haven't had rocket launches. Some sites were blown up. And we got back our hostages, our prisoners, even before I left. So a lot of good things are happening. There's some good feeling there," he added, listing North Korean actions that he often cites as signs of progress.

But Trump also indicated that North Korea was not bending to U.S. demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization.

"We'll see what happens. It's a process. It's probably a longer process than anybody would like, but I'm used to long processes, too," he said. "We haven't taken off the sanctions. The sanctions are biting. We haven't taken them off."

Trump has come under fire from critics who argue that he lost all leverage with North Korea when he agreed to meet Kim in Singapore last month. They produced a joint statement committing Kim to the "complete denuclearization" of the Korean Peninsula in exchange for security guarantees from the U.S., but critics have bashed it as lacking in detail.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is leading follow-up negotiations to implement the deal and traveled to Pyongyang last week to meet with his North Korean counterpart.

He left with apparently few tangible results.

In a Twitter message Thursday, Trump revealed a letter he received from Kim, apparently delivered through Pompeo last week, in which the North Korean leader expressed hope for further progress in bilateral ties.

"A very nice note from Chairman Kim of North Korea. Great progress being made!" Trump tweeted.

hague@yna.co.kr
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