WASHINGTON, April 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the sanctions on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) would remain in place, but he deemed it unnecessary to further increase them.
According to the accounts of White House journalists sent to media via email, Trump said while speaking to the media with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in at the White House that "we want sanctions to remain in place."
Saying the existing sanctions against the DPRK are on a "fair" level, Trump added that "I really believe something very significant is going to happen. We could always increase them, but I didn't want to do that."
Wu Haitao, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, said on Wednesday that sanctions against the DPRK should not impact humanitarian aid to the country as per relevant Security Council resolutions.
For dialogue to continue and make headway, the key is to address the legitimate concerns of the parties concerned in a balanced manner, and advance denuclearization and the establishment of a peace mechanism for the peninsula by following a phased approach with synchronized steps as a package solution, he added.
The second summit between Trump and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un in late February in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi ended without an agreement.
Trump told a press conference after the summit that Kim demanded relief from sanctions against Pyongyang "in their entirety" in exchange for denuclearizing a "large portion" of the DPRK's nuclear program, something the United States could not agree to.
Dismissing Trump's claim, DPRK Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho has said that DPRK only proposed partial removal of the sanctions, wanting those impeding the livelihood of their people to be removed first.
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