Donald Trump has ordered his secretary of state Mike Pompeo to cancel a planned visit to North Korea because the regime is not making “sufficient progress” over denuclearisation. The US president's comments, delivered by tweet, amount to the strongest criticism yet of North Korea from Mr Trump since he met the country’s leader Kim Jong-un in June. Previously Mr Trump has repeatedly played up the success of the talks, saying that North Korea “no longer” posed a nuclear threat and pointing to the fact no missiles had been tested. Mr Pompeo, who is leading the talks for America, had been due to fly to North Korea next week to hold further talks about securing the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula – something agreed by both sides when the US president met Kim. However Mr Trump tweeted on Friday:<doc-sep>Trump said in a message on Twitter that Pompeo's visit, which was set for next week, now would likely not take place until after Washington has resolved its trade dispute with China. Trump said China was no longer helping on the North Korea issue. Washington: US President Donald Trump said on Friday he had cancelled Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s planned trip to North Korea because “we are not making sufficient progress” toward the goal of denuclearising the Korean peninsula. Negotiations have stalled since the June summit in Singapore. Pompeo is pressing for tangible steps toward North Korea’s abandonment of its nuclear arsenal while Pyongyang is demanding that Washington first make concessions of its own. "I feel we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula," Trump said on Twitter. Trump's statement came just a day after Pompeo announced he would again visit North Korea and would take his new US special representative, Stephen Biegun, with him in an attempt to break the deadlock. Donald Trump has, for the first time, acknowledged that his landmark meeting with Kim Jong-un has not produced tangible outcomes. Credit:AP But Trump asked Pompeo not to go to North Korea during a meeting at the White House on Friday afternoon, a senior White House official said.<doc-sep>U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, second from right, greets Kim Yong Chol, second from left, a North Korean senior ruling party official and former intelligence chief, as they arrive for a meeting at the Park Hwa Guest House in Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday, July 6, 2018. Pompeo is on a trip traveling to North Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Abu Dhabi, and Brussels. Also pictured is Andrew Kim, the head of the CIA's Korea Mission Center, right. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool) WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 09: National Security Adviser John Bolton speaks on a morning television show from the grounds of the White House, on May 9, 2018 in Washington, DC. Yesterday President Donald Trump announced that America was withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) N. Korea to Pompeo: You may not have slept well U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, speaks during a meeting with North Korean Director of the United Front Department Kim Yong Chol at the Park Hwa Guest House in Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday, July 6, 2018. Pompeo is on a trip traveling to North Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Abu Dhabi, and Brussels. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool) SINGAPORE - JUNE 12: In this handout photo, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un shakes hands with U.S. President Donald Trump during their historic U.S.-DPRK summit at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island on June 12, 2018 in Singapore. U.S. President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held the historic meeting between leaders of both countries on Tuesday morning in Singapore, carrying hopes to end decades of hostility and the threat of North Korea's nuclear program. (Photo by Kevin Lim/THE STRAITS TIMES/Handout/Getty Images) SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE - JUNE 12: In this handout photograph provided by The Strait Times, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (L) with U.S. President Donald Trump (R) during their historic U.S.-DPRK summit at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island on June 12, 2018 in Singapore. U.S. President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held the historic meeting between leaders of both countries on Tuesday morning in Singapore, carrying hopes to end decades of hostility and the threat of North Korea's nuclear programme. (Photo by Kevin Lim/The Strait Times/Handout/Getty Images) TOPSHOT - North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un (L) shakes hands with US President Donald Trump (R) after taking part in a signing ceremony at the end of their historic US-North Korea summit, at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore on June 12, 2018. - Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un became on June 12 the first sitting US and North Korean leaders to meet, shake hands and negotiate to end a decades-old nuclear stand-off. (Photo by Anthony WALLACE / POOL / AFP) (Photo credit should read ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/Getty Images) TOPSHOT - US President Donald Trump (R) poses with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un (L) at the start of their historic US-North Korea summit, at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore on June 12, 2018. - Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un have become on June 12 the first sitting US and North Korean leaders to meet, shake hands and negotiate to end a decades-old nuclear stand-off. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (3rd L) shakes hands with North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho (3rd R) as they arrive for a group photo at the ASEAN Regional Forum Retreat during the 51st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Ministerial Meeting (AMM) in Singapore on August 4, 2018. - Leaders, ministers and representatives are meeting in the city-state from August 1 to 4 for the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM). (Photo by Mohd RASFAN / AFP) (Photo credit should read MOHD RASFAN/AFP/Getty Images) (CNN) — Citing insufficient progress on the issue of denuclearization, President Donald Trump nixed plans for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to make what would have been his fourth visit to North Korea Friday, canceling next week’s trip just one day after it was announced by Pompeo. “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. “Secretary Pompeo looks forward to going to North Korea in the near future, most likely after our Trading relationship with China is resolved.” Pompeo had said Thursday newly announced special representative to North Korea, Stephen Biegun, would be joining him on the trip to Pyongyang. The top US diplomat and Andrew Kim, the head of the CIA’s Korea Mission Center, were seen entering the West Wing of the White House on Friday afternoon just hours before Trump posted the series of tweets. Pompeo was in the room when Trump sent his tweet canceling the trip, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told CNN. National security adviser John Bolton, who just returned from an overseas trip, was on speakerphone, Sanders said. A senior diplomatic source told CNN that State Department officials were “briefing allies’ embassies about their objectives for the trip like 10 minutes before” the trip was called off. “The President’s tendency to undercut his negotiating team has made it easy for Pyongyang officials to refuse their demands. Now, as the administration finally installs a negotiating team, the President signals publicly that he doubts their ability to make progress,” Adam Mount, senior fellow and director of the Defense Posture Project at the Federation of American Scientists told CNN. “Washington has allowed talks to drift along, unstable, unproductive, and without a coordinated negotiating team. It appears the President is willing to allow this to continue into the fall,” he said. A diplomatic source told CNN that while it is possible that high-ranking officials in Seoul were informed of Trump’s decision to cancel the trip prior to the tweets, the announcement caught South Korean diplomats at the working level off guard. South Korean President Moon Jae-in plans to visit Pyongyang next month for a third summit with Kim. “The decision also leaves Moon Jae-in isolated ahead of his planned trip to Pyongyang next month. Both Seoul’s approach on economic and threat reduction and the US nuclear talks would benefit from being integrated,” Mount said. The South Korean Foreign Ministry said Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa and Pompeo spoke by telephone Saturday to discuss the canceled trip and where negotiations might go from here. A statement released by the ministry said Pompeo explained “in detail” the reasons for postponing the trip. The statement did not elaborate. According to the South Korean Foreign Ministry, Kang called the cancellation “regrettable” while Pompeo reaffirmed the US position that it will continue to solidify South Korea-US cooperation. On Friday, Trump specifically referenced the ongoing tariffs battle between the US and China as part of the reason for the lack of progress on North Korean denuclearization, something he has previously hinted at. “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),” Trump said in one of three tweets Friday afternoon on the issue. Trump was asked in an interview with Reuters on Monday if North Korea had done anything beyond dismantling a test site to show it was in the process of denuclearizing. “I do believe they have,” he said, but did not provide further details. Despite the cancellation, Trump sent his “warmest regards and respect” to North Korean leader Kim and said he looks “forward to seeing him soon!” When the two leaders met in Singapore in June, Trump praised the young autocrat, saying Kim had “to be a rough guy,” but that he’s “smart, loves his people, he loves his country. He wants a lot of good things and that’s why he’s doing this.” State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said Thursday that there were “no plans for a meeting” between Pompeo and Kim on the trip. Kim snubbed Pompeo during the last round of meetings in North Korea early last month, which sources told CNN went “as badly as it could have gone.”<doc-sep>
President Donald Trump said Friday he had asked the top U.S. diplomat not to travel to North Korea amid an apparent stall in U.S.-North Korea relations. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday he was planning to make his fourth visit to the country alongside newly appointed special representative Steve Biegun in an effort to advance a historic peace effort between Washington and Pyongyang. But the trip appeared to be abruptly canceled as the president took to social media to attack China over a current trade dispute, while still voicing his respect for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. "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 wrote on Twitter. "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)." He continued: "Secretary Pompeo looks forward to going to North Korea in the near future, most likely after our Trading relationship with China is resolved. In the meantime, I would like to send my warmest regards and respect to Chairman Kim. I look forward to seeing him soon!" Longtime foes, the U.S. and North Korea have agreed upon North Korea's denuclearization in exchange for a lifting of sanctions and end to a decades-long hostility, but no comprehensive deal has been reached. Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to meet with a North Korean ruler in June, and gradual signs of progress following his talks with Kim emerged only to be overshadowed by new reports suggesting North Korea had slowed or even halted anti-nuclear developments. The issue has also coincided with a worsening trade dispute with China, North Korea's traditional top ally. In what China's Finance Ministry has called "the biggest trade war in economic history," the world's two largest economic powers have launched tit-for-tat sanctions and threatened to escalate their conflict. Trump has previously attempted to leverage his ties with China and North Korea against one another and, in a reversal from last year, has appeared closer to Kim than Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has experienced a colder period in Beijing-Pyongyang relations than in previous decades. As the pace of talks with the U.S. slowed, Pyongyang has pushed for a formal treaty to end the Korean War, a 1950s conflict fought between China-backed North Korea and U.S.-backed South Korea, which ended only in an armistice. The U.S. has maintained that peace, as well as the lifting of extensive sanctions, would only be realized through North Korea's full denuclearization. South Korea has pressed forward with a number of inter-Korean initiatives, however, prioritizing diplomacy over the removal of weapons of mass destruction that its northern neighbor has long argued was necessary to protect it from an outside attack. While Pompeo has traveled to North Korea three times before, he only met with Kim on the first two occasions. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters Thursday that the former CIA director was again not scheduled to meet with the young ruler on the upcoming visit. When pressed for answers, she said, "I think what's important is that we are regularizing these meetings and these conversations with a government that we have had very, very little interaction with over the past decade or so" and highlighted Biegen's appointment. "So I think this is just sort of more of a normalization of our types of conversations," she added. "We have long said that none of this in terms of working toward denuclearization would be particularly fast. We go into this eyes wide open. But this is all going to take some time, and I think we have been clear about that."