North Korea will not relinquish its nuclear arsenal until the regional “nuclear threat” from the United States is removed, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a statement Thursday.

In a dispatch released amid a visit to the peninsula by Washington’s top North Korea negotiator Stephen Biegun and months of deadlocked nuclear talks, the DPRK blamed the U.S. for a lack of progress since July’s Singapore summit.

That meeting between DPRK leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump – as well as two inter-Korean summits in April and September – saw North Korea commit to work