North Korea is ready for dialogue with the US, but as long as the sanction pressure persists, Pyongyang will continue to be the main threat to Washington, said North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho.

“But if the U.S. still has an absurd dream about achieving everything with sanctions, we have no choice but to let it dream as much as it wishes or break down the dream. We are prepared for both dialogue and confrontation. If the U.S. attempts to stand against us with sanctions without abandoning its confrontational posture, it would be a miscalculation. If so, we will remain the U.S.’s biggest ‘threat’ for a long time, and we will definitely make the U.S. realize what it ought to do to achieve denuclearization,” NK News reported quoting the minister. 

He criticized US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who in a recent interview expressed the hope that North Korea is still committed to denuclearization.

Though “DPRK-U.S. dialogue is widely expected,” the North Korean foreign minister said, Pompe has repeatedly made “ludicrous comments” which Pyongyang feels compelled to respond to.

“As Pompeo gushed slander, neglecting … decency expected of a head of foreign affairs, I cannot but respond at the same level,” Ri said.