U.S. claims to put pressure on N. Korea over denuclearisation

The US will continue with its "maximum pressure" campaign on North Korea and the Trump administration is determined to achieve its objective of complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, the White House said Wednesday. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders was responding to a question on South Korea's announcement to send food aid to North Korea despite Pyongyang's missile test.

South Korea has said that US President Donald Trump has supported its humanitarian move. "Our position with regard to North Korea is going to continue to be the maximum pressure campaign. Our focus is on the denuclearisation (of Korean Peninsula)," Sanders told reporters.

"If South Korea moves forward on that front, we're not going to enter it," Sanders said on Seoul's aid announcement. The US and North Korea have been locked in a fierce war of words.

President Trump has mocked North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un as "rocket man" and the young dictator has threatened to rain nuclear destruction on the United States. President Trump and Chairman Kim met in Hanoi, Vietnam in February.

They held a historic meeting in Singapore on June 12 last year where they issued a vague goal for the "complete denuclearisation" of the Korean Peninsula without describing when and how it would occur. The US president had said after the first summit that he believed he and Kim will "solve a big problem, a big dilemma" and that by working together, "we will get it taken care of".

The summit at Singapore's Sentosa island had marked a turnaround of relations between Trump and Kim after a long-running exchange of threats and insults. The US insists it will accept nothing less than complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

On Friday, Pyongyang tested a ballistic missile for the first time in well over a year, marking an escalation in tension over the Korean peninsula. While it was only a short-range missile that couldn't reach the United States, it shows that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's patience with negotiations may be wearing thin.

The next day, Trump deescalated the situation by tweeting how he remains hopeful that Kim will choose to dismantle his nuclear arsenal, adding, "He also knows that I am with him".