North Korea threatened to cut off nuclear talks with the United States on Monday in response to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s recent “reckless” comments. Pompeo last week called on the international community to "remain committed to exerting diplomatic and economic pressure" on Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programs.

“Listening to Pompeo’s ludicrous language made us give up on any hopes for dialogue,” an unnamed North Korean official told state-run media. "We will chart our own course."

Pompeo “unleashed insult at a country with which his president was willing to forge a good relationship,” the official continued. “It is puzzling who the real commander in chief is in the US.”

North Korea is growing more frustrated with sanctions placed on its economy and has shot off projectiles several times in the last month. The U.S. and North Korea have been involved in diplomatic negotiations, with Pyongyang possibly committing to a path of denuclearization in exchange for reduced sanctions on the isolated Asian nation.

U.S. and North Korean negotiators last met in October in Sweden to discuss the nuclear issue, but talks fell through on the first day of meetings. North Korea has said that it has been “deceived” by the U.S.

President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have had an inconsistent relationship. The two leaders met in Vietnam in February 2019 and in Singapore in June 2018 for nuclear summits but did not reach a deal.

A nuclear deal with North Korea would be a major achievement for Trump’s presidential legacy. Trump is the only sitting president to visit North Korea.

However, Trump’s overtures towards Pyongyang have been called “appeasement” by some Democrats, while former National Security Adviser John Bolton has claimed that North Korea will never surrender its nuclear arsenal.

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