The White House said Monday that the U.S. will continue to apply pressure to North Korea to relinquish its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, just days after President Donald Trump said he would no longer use the term "maximum pressure" as the two sides prepare for a historic June 12 meeting between Trump and the North's Kim Jong Un.
"As the president stated, we have sanctions on. They're very powerful, and we would not take those sanctions off unless North Korea denuclearized," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, in an apparent effort to ease concerns in Tokyo and among other U.S. allies that Trump's remarks could weaken U.S. and United Nations sanctions on the nuclear-armed North.
"Our policy hasn't changed," she said. "Our focus will continue to be on denuclearization."