Alwaght- US President has cancelled Secretary of State's next week visit to North Korea, citing insufficient progress on the denuclearization of Pyongyang.
"I have asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo not to go to North Korea, at this time, because I feel we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Trump tweeted on Friday.
Pompeo and his newly appointed special envoy for North Korea nuclear negotiations, Stephen Biegun, were scheduled to travel to Pyongyang next week for a fourth round of talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program.
Trump partly in another tweet blamed China for the lack of progress, saying Beijing is not doing enough to help the process move forward "as they once were."
"...Additionally, because of our much tougher Trading stance with China, I do not believe they are helping with the process of denuclearization as they once were (despite the UN Sanctions which are in place)..." tramp claimed in his tweet.
"Secretary Pompeo looks forward to going to North Korea in the near future, most likely after our Trading relationship with China is resolved."
Trump's statement on Twitter Friday came just a day after Pompeo said he would again travel to North Korea.
Meanwhile, a senior White House official said that the president asked Pompeo not to go to the Asian country during a meeting at the White House on Friday afternoon.
Some US intelligence and defense officials had described the trip as premature, saying the prospect for significant progress was bleak.
Pompeo, who would have been making his second visit to Pyongyang since the historic summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in June, had not been expected to meet Kim this time, the State Department said on Thursday.
Trump has repeatedly hailed the June 12 meeting in Singapore as an unqualified success, slamming critics who cited the lack of firm commitments required of North Korea in the agreement he signed with Kim.
