WASHINGTON, June 5 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. State Department said on Tuesday that the "maximum pressure campaign" against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) will continue although President Donald Trump said last week he had not liked the term.
In a press briefing, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said that "sanctions and the pressure campaign remain in place."
After meeting Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the Central Committee of the DPRK's ruling Workers' Party of Korea, Trump told the media Friday that he had not liked the term "maximum pressure" as ties with the DPRK had been improving.
Suggesting the media do not "get bogged in the details," Nauert said "our pressure campaign, whatever it is you want to call it, remains firmly in place."
"We will not pull back that pressure campaign until North Korea (DPRK) follows through on its pledge to denuclearize. That is something we have been consistent upon in this administration," she added.
Stressing that Washington remains committed to completely verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, Nuaert said U.S. talks with the DPRK in Panmunjom and Singapore "are ongoing."
"If you want to call that a hawkish thing or a dovish thing, fine, so be it but our policy remains the same," she said.
Trump's meeting with Kim was tentatively scheduled for 9:00 a.m. local time (0100 GMT) on June 12.
White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said earlier on Tuesday that the meeting would take place at the Capella Hotel on Singapore's Sentosa Island.
