North Korea accuses US of pushing ‘gangster-like mindset’ on denuclearization

North Korea accused President Trump’s administration of pushing for denuclearization with a “gangster-like mindset” on Saturday, hours after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said his talks with officials have been “productive.”

North Korean state-run news agency KCNA released a statement saying the U.S. is “fatally mistaken” if officials believe the country would follow through with aggressive demands to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

“The US is fatally mistaken if it went to the extent of regarding that the [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] would be compelled to accept, out of its patience, the demands reflecting its gangster-like mindset,” the statement said, according to a CNN translation.

{mosads}

North Korea blasted Pompeo and the weekend’s high-level talks in Pyongyang, saying the United States’s attitude was “regrettable.”

The statement said that North Korean officials had hoped U.S. officials would bring “constructive measures,” but the American delegation, it said, brought up “cancerous issues.”

The outcome of the discussions was “worrisome,” the statement said.

The White House declined to comment to CNN on North Korea’s statement.

Pompeo offered a different view on the discussions when he talked to reporters on Saturday.

“We made progress on almost all the central issues,” he said, according to a tweet from State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert.

Just before leaving Pyongyang, ⁦@SecPompeo⁩ gives US reporters a brief readout from his meetings. “These are complicated issues but we made progress on almost all the central issues. Some places, a great deal of progress, other places, there’s still more work to be done.” pic.twitter.com/wiP0J1447N

— Heather Nauert (@statedeptspox) July 7, 2018

Pompeo’s trip to North Korea comes weeks after Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed an agreement in Singapore committing the U.S. to unspecified security guarantees in exchange for a denuclearized Korean Peninsula.

Pompeo did not meet with Kim during this week’s trip.