North Korea's foreign minister Ri Yong Ho has criticised calls by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to maintain sanctions against North Korea.
Ri Yong Ho said despite "goodwill measures" taken by his country, the US was "raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against the DPRK".
He made the comments during a security forum in Singapore, according to a statement.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, second from right, inspects the preparation of the launch of a Hwasong-14 ICBM in this 2017 file photo. Source: AAP
Mr Ri criticised "insistent moves manifested within the US to go back to the old, far from its leader's intention".
"Impatience is not helpful at all for building confidence. Especially, advancing unilateral demands will further deepen mistrust, instead of reviving trust," said the statement.
"As long as the US does not show in practice its strong will to remove our concerns, there will be no case whereby we will move forward first unilaterally," Ri added.
Earlier, Pompeo urged major powers attending the same forum, including China and Russia, to keep up sanctions pressure against the North.
At landmark talks in June with US President Donald Trump, the North's leader Kim Jong Un signed up to a vague commitment to "denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula" -- a far cry from long-standing US demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament.
US officials have publicly been optimistic about the agreement but progress appears to have been slow.
Evading sanctions
A UN report released on Friday said that North Korea has resorted to a "massive increase" of illegal ship-to-ship transfers of oil products at sea to evade sanctions.
The 62-page report sent to the Security Council also listed violations of a ban on North Korean exports including coal, iron and seafood that generate millions of dollars in revenue for the reclusive regime.
At the summit with President Donald Trump in June, the North's leader Kim Jong Un signed up to a vague commitment to "denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula" -- a far cry from long-standing US demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament.
While there have been small signs of progress, news reports indicate Pyongyang is continuing to build rockets and there have been concerns that some member states are relaxing the enforcement of sanctions.
There has been no clear indication how long it will take the North to disarm or how exactly it will do so, and Pompeo said in Singapore the timing would be up to Kim.
"The ultimate timeline for denuclearisation will be set by Chairman Kim, at least in part," he told local broadcaster Channel NewsAsia in an interview. "The decision is his."
At Saturday's press conference, Pompeo said the US was "heartened" by Pyongyang's recent return of the remains of dozens of American soldiers killed during the Korean War.
But he also warned that Washington would take the infringement of sanctions by other countries "very seriously".
"We have seen reports that Russia is allowing for joint ventures with North Korean firms and granting new work permits to North Korean guest workers," Pompeo said.
"If these reports are proven accurate, and we have every reason to believe that they are, that would be in violation" of UN sanctions, he added.
Oil transfers
Pompeo said that during his meetings in Singapore, he called specifically for countries to enforce sanctions by stopping ship-to-ship transfers of petrol.
Cutting off oil and fuel to the North would require enforcement primarily by China, which supplies most of North Korea's energy needs, but also by Russia, which delivers some oil to Pyongyang.
The US top diplomat said that in talks Friday, Foreign Minister Wang Yi was clear on China's "continued commitment" to enforce sanctions.
Pompeo also held talks with his counterparts from South Korea and Japan.
Saturday's forum, hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), brings together top diplomats from 26 countries and the European Union for talks on political and security issues in the Asia-Pacific.
Wang also met with the North's Ri in Singapore and praised Pyongyang's "efforts in promoting the denuclearisation process", China's official Xinhua news agency said.
After attending the Singapore meeting, Ri will head to Iran for an official visit, according to North Korea's official news agency KCNA.
Iran, whose nuclear drive has also sparked international alarm, and North Korea are reported to have a history of cooperation in military and missile technology.
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