In this file photo taken on December 13, 2018 US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks to the press at the State Department in Washington, DC. - US officials hope that a second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un can be scheduled for early 2019, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said December 20, 2018. "We are hopeful that in the new year, President Trump and Chairman Kim will get together not too long after the first of the year and make even further progress on taking this (nuclear) threat to the United States away from us," Pompeo said in an interview with KNSS Radio. AFP

The United States is working to achieve North Korea's commitment to dismantle its nuclear weapons program, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday amid deadlocked negotiations.

Pompeo also said in an interview with Kansas-based KNSS Radio that the two sides will continue to have meetings, including a possible second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

"We still are working through the execution of Chairman Kim's commitment to denuclearize," he said. "We are hopeful that in the new year President Trump and Chairman Kim will get together not too long after the first of the year and make even further progress on taking this threat to the United States away from us."

Hours earlier, the North's state news agency issued a commentary slamming the U.S. for its "misguided" understanding of "denuclearization of the Korean peninsula" ― a commitment Trump and Kim made at their first summit in Singapore in June.