“Pompeo’s comments came after President Donald Trump received a new letter from Kim Jong Un.

SINGAPORE — US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said North Korea’s continued work on weapons programs was inconsistent with its leader’s commitment to denuclearize, adding the hermit state is far from living up to its pledge and remains in violation of numerous UN Security Council resolutions.

Speaking Friday before he attends an Asian security forum with North Korea’s foreign minister, Pompeo told reporters in Singapore there was “still a ways to go before” achieving the goal of ridding the North of its nuclear weapons.

Pompeo’s comments came after the White House announced Thursday that President Donald Trump received a new letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and responded quickly with a letter of his own. The correspondence, following up on their Singapore summit in June, came amid fresh concerns over Pyongyang’s commitment to denuclearization despite a rosy picture of progress painted by Trump.

Pompeo has taken the lead in negotiations with the North, having traveled to Pyongyang three times since April and accompanied Trump to the summit, will be in the same room on Saturday as his North Korean counterpart at the Association of South East Asian Nations annual regional forum. A separate meeting between the two was a possible, but not confirmed, according to State Department officials.

“Chairman Kim made a commitment to denuclearize,” Pompeo told reporters accompanying him to Singapore from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. “The world demanded that (he) do so in the UN Security Council resolutions. To the extent they are behaving in a manner inconsistent with that, they are in violation of one or both the UN Security Council resolutions, we can see we still have a ways to go to achieve the ultimate outcome we’re looking for.”

On Thursday, Trump tweeted his thanks to the North Korean leader “for your nice letter — I look forward to seeing you soon!”

The White House did not provide details on the specific content of the letter from Kim, received Wednesday, or of Trump’s reply. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the letters addressed their commitment to work toward North Korea’s “complete denuclearization.”

Sanders said no second meeting is “locked in” as a follow-up to the Singapore summit in June, but they remain open to discussions.

Trump in his tweet expressed gratitude to Kim “for keeping your word” on the return of the remains of more than 50 American service members killed during the Korean War. Vice President Mike Pence and US military leaders received the remains in Hawaii during a somber ceremony on Wednesday.

The latest letter from Kim arrived on the heels of concerns over North Korea’s ballistic missile program and commitment to denuclearization. Senior Trump administration officials have urged patience, cautioning that the process of denuclearizing North Korea and removing the threat of its long-range missiles will take time.

US officials have been closely watching North Korea’s willingness to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council is poised to back a US proposal aimed at removing some of the hurdles that tough sanctions on North Korea have thrown up in the way of delivering humanitarian aid, according to documents obtained by Agence France Presse.

North Korea’s humanitarian crisis has left about 10 million people — nearly half of the population – undernourished, according to UN officials, who have reported a drop in food production last year.

UN resolutions specify that sanctions should not affect humanitarian aid but relief organizations argue that strict trade and banking measures are creating bureaucratic obstacles and slowing down the flow of vital supplies.

A US proposal put forward last month would provide clear instructions to aid organizations and governments to apply for UN sanctions exemptions for North Korea, according to the text seen by AFP.

After weeks of negotiations, the UN sanctions committee is expected to give final approval to the new guidelines on Monday. AP and AFP