US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Sunday, that the sanctions imposed on North Korea can only be lifted after Pyongyang demonstrates that it has taken “irreversible steps to denuclearization,” as quoted by the Yonhap news agency.

“North Korea will receive relief only when it demonstrates verifiable and irreversible steps to denuclearization,” Mattis said at the opening of trilateral talks between the United States, South Korean and Japan on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore.

These words echo the statement of the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said in May that Washington plans to allow private investments and provide “sanctions relief” if the North Korean government dismantles its nuclear arsenal.

Source: Websites