(CNN) As the United States and North Korea prepare for another round of high-level talks this week, Pyongyang's increasingly heated rhetoric has analysts worried that the stalemate between the two sides could lead to a breakdown in negotiations. An official with North Korea's Foreign Ministry issued a veiled threat Friday, warning that Pyongyang could restart "building up nuclear forces" if the US does not ease the crippling sanctions levied on North Korea. The comments come ahead of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's meeting with his North Korean counterpart, Kim Yong Chol, in New York this week. The piece, carried in North Korea's state-run news agency KCNA, accused Washington of believing the "foolish idea that the DPRK came out to the negotiating table, yielding to the sanctions" and failing to understand that "the improvement of relations and sanctions are incompatible." The Trump administration has long held that sanctions levied on North Korea by the United Nations and the US would not be lifted until North Korea gave up its nuclear weapons and the world community was able to verify that it had done so.

Source: CNN November 05, 2018 05:47 UTC