Trump privately frustrated over lack of progress on North Korea negotiations: report

Washington, July 23: US President Donald Trump was ecstatic after his historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore on June 12 and claimed that Pyongyang no longer remained a nuclear threat and that one of the world's most serious geopolitical challenges was "largely solved". He even called Kim a "talented man" on the occasion, replacing the more aggressive terminology of "rocket man".

However, as days have passed by, American negotiators have faced it increasingly difficult to turn the words into action, thanks to stiff resistance from the East Asian country and it has left Trump aghast, so much so that he has fumed at his aides privately even as he praised the negotiations in public, The Washington Times reported.

As per diplomats and negotiators, Pyongyang has cared little to honour follow-up meetings and maintain basic communications and sought more funds when it comes to the US while they carried out their engagements perfectly well with the Chinese and South Koreans, the Post report said.

The US is also concerned over North's working on hiding key parts of its nuclear programme while maintaining a missile facility which Trump said would be dismantled, the report added.

The details of the Trump administration's internal takes on the negotiations with the isolationist state which has taken a pro-rapprochement stand this year were known from talks with officials of the White House, US State Department and others who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the Washington Post report said.

According to the officials, Trump seeks updates on the progress of the negotiations with Pyongyang daily and besides the lack of progress on the talks, he is also upset with the media coverage of the joint statement that he had signed with Kim in Singapore. It was criticised by many as a document with no specific timeline on denuclearisation, the report added.

"Trump has been hit with a strong dose of reality of North Korea's negotiating style, which is always hard for Americans to understand," Duyeon Kim, a Korea expert at the Washington DC-based Center for a New American Security, was quoted as saying by the Post.