US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (Photo: AFP/VNA)

Pompeo's remark comes amid a long hiatus in denuclearization negotiations between the US and North Korea, following three meetings between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in 2018 and 2019. 

Trump and Kim held the first-ever US-North Korea summit in June 2018, in which they signed a four-point agreement that stated Pyongyang's commitment to full denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in exchange for a security guarantee. Their second summit, held in February 2019, however, ended without a deal. The leaders met again briefly in June 2019 inside the Demilitarized Zone that separates South and North Korea. Their talks have stalled since.