Our top story this morning.
The foreign ministers of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan met for the second time in less than a month on Sunday... to discuss the U.S. Secretary of State's third visit to North Korea.
They confirmed Pyongyang's willingness to denuclearize,... but that sanctions on the regime should remain in place for now.
Lee Ji-won reports.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that on his third trip to Pyongyang on Friday and Saturday, he and officials there reaffirmed North Korea's willingess to denuclearize.
But, he said, until that happens, economic sanctions on the regime will remain in place.
The Secretary was speaking Sunday at a joint-press conference in Tokyo after meeting with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, Kang Kyung-wha and Taro Kono, with whom he shared the results of his North Korea trip.

"First let me make it clear. North Korea reaffirmed its commitment to complete denuclearization. We had detailed and substantive discsussions about the next steps towards fully verified and complete denuclearization."

He also said that the two sides had lengthy discussions about what "complete denuclearization" means.
The North, he said, acknowledged that the scope of the process is broad,... it did not challenge the notion that it has to denuclearize completely.
The North Koreans also, reportedly, understand that denuclearization makes no sense in the absence of verification and that verification will happen.
Pompeo indicated that there had been progress, but progress alone, he said, does not justify relaxing the existing sanctions.

"We need to work on those efforts simultaneously, so it is absolutely the case that there are places where there will be things that take place along the way... that help achieve the security assurances and improvement in the peaceful relationship between our two countries during the time the denuclearization is taking place. But the economic sanctions are a different kettle of fish all together."

Pompeo said the world will see continued enforcement efforts by the United States and stressed that all nations need to fully implement the UN security resolutions... until "final, fully verified denuclearization" occurs.
This is seen as a message to North Korea's closest allies, China and Russia, who have recently loosened their grip on Pyongyang.

Pompeo was asked about North Korea saying that it's disappointed with the talks because of unilateral "gangster-like" demands from the U.S., to which he said that if those requests were gangster-like, then the *world must be a gangster because denuclearization is what the UN Security Council has agreed on.

South Korea's foreign minister, Kang Kyung-wha, saw Pompeo's visit to the North as the first step in moving towards the goals set by their leaders, and she promised Seoul's cooperation.

"... Expect these to be followed by further constructive and productive negotations between the U.S. and North Korea. And the Republic of K