N Korea calls denuclearisation talks 'regrettable', Pompeo claims progress

North Korea on Saturday expressed disappointment over the attitude of United States officials on denuclearisation, calling it "regrettable and really disappointing."

In a statement by an unnamed foreign ministry spokesman carried by North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Pyongyang criticised Washington DC for "seeking unilateral and forced denuclearisation", Yonhap News Agency reported.

"We expected that the US side would come with productive measures conducive to building trust in line with the spirit of the North-US summit and (we) considered providing something that would correspond to them," the spokesman said.

"The US just came out with such unilateral and robber-like denuclearisation demands as CVID (complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement), declaration and verification that go against the spirit of the North Korean-US summit meeting," he added.

The spokesman further said that North Korea called for a "phased" and "synchronous" approach of the denuclearisation exercise.

He underscored that it would be the shortest path to achieve a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.

"It would be the shortest path toward realisation of the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula to ... boldly break away from the failure-ridden methods of the past, push for whole new approaches and seek to resolve problems one by one based on trust and in a phased and synchronous principle," the spokesman said.

Earlier in the day, United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was on a two-day visit to North Korea, said that there was progress being made on North Korea's denuclearisation exercise.

He added that "there's still more work to be done" to achieve the process dismantling of North Korea's nuclear weapon and ballistic missiles programme.

Calling the talks "very productive", Pompeo told media that he "spent a good time" talking about denuclearisation, Yonhap News Agency reported.

Pompeo met with the vice-chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, Kim Yong-chol in the last two days in Pyongyang, where the duo was engaged in intense deliberations on a timeline to achieve the dismantling of North Korea's nuclear programme.

He will brief his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, Kang Kyung-wha and Taro Kono, on the outcome of his meetings in Pyongyang on Sunday (July 8) in Tokyo.

On a related note, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump signed a post-summit joint declaration on June 12 in Singapore, according to which Kim committed for 'complete denuclearisation of Korean Peninsula', while the latter pledged 'security guarantees' to North Korea.