Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Friday deferred questions about the future US military presence on the Korean Peninsula to diplomats, whom he said would deal with that and other issues should there be a peace agreement with North Korea, reported Reuters.

“So I think for right now we just have to go along with the process, have the negotiations and not try to make preconditions or presumptions about how it is going to go,” Mattis told reporters. “The diplomats are going to have to go to work now.”