North Korea over the past week has escalated pressure on the U.S., defying U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo’s comment after the historic Kim-Trump summit in Panmunjom that working-level talks would resume in mid-July. 

The North’s position on working-level talks appears to have changed when Pompeo continued to call on the North to return to the talks with new ideas even after the Kim-Trump Panmunjom meeting. A major South Korean daily’s report on July 11 confirming that the U.S. and South Korea were going ahead with the joint military drills and that they