US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo underlined the need for different foreign policy approaches to Iran and North Korea in comments published Thursday, describing Tehran as more "destabilizing" than Pyongyang, Daily Mail reported.

"We've made very clear that these situations are very different. We take each of them where we find them," he told US television station CBS in excerpts of a transcript released by the State Department.

Washington set 12 tough conditions on talks with Iran, yet President Donald Trump made almost no stipulations on meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last year and the White House has had follow-up contacts with the regime.

"North Korea today has weapons, nuclear weapons, capable of reaching the United States of America," Pompeo said.

"This is a threat that President Trump said we needed to take on now and take on immediately. The president's chosen to meet with Chairman Kim."

"North Korea behaves very differently. They're not destabilizing Yemen. They're not destabilizing Syria. They're not conducting enormous assassination campaigns," Pompeo said.