Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday he hoped North Korea would choose peace over war, a response to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un saying would introduce a "new strategic weapon" in the near future.
"So, seeing that reporting publicly, it remains the case that we hope that Chairman Kim will take a different course," Pompeo told Fox News in an interview, adding "we're hopeful" that "Chairman Kim will make the right decision – he'll choose peace and prosperity over conflict and war."
In a separate interview with CBS News, Pompeo was asked whether he was alarmed by Kim's statements – Kim said there were no grounds for North Korea to be bound any longer by a self-declared moratorium on intercontinental ballistic missile and nuclear bomb testing.
"If Chairman Kim has reneged on the commitments he made to President Trump, that is deeply disappointing," Pompeo said.
"He made those commitments to President Trump in exchange for President Trump agreeing not to conduct large-scale military exercises. We've lived up to our commitments. We continue to hold out hope that he will live up to his as well."
Kim complained the United States had continued joint military drills with South Korea, adopted cutting edge weapons and imposed sanctions while making "gangster-like demands."
Trump, who became the first U.S. leader to meet a North Korean leader last year, has repeatedly held up the moratorium, in place since 2017, as evidence his policy of engagement was working.