U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with the Japanese and South Korean foreign ministers Sunday in Tokyo and downplayed statements from North Korea expressing regret at “gangster-like” demands during his talks in Pyongyang the previous day.

Secretary Pompeo appeared to dismiss the statements released by North Korean state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Saturday as unrelated to his personal experience in talks with Vice Chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee Kim Yong Chol over the weekend.

Referring to the commentary in KCNA attributed to a spokesperson of the DPRK foreign ministry as “stray comments,”