North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho has repeated calls for the step-by-step, simultaneous approach to the North's denuclearization.

The North's top diplomat made the calls on Saturday during a speech at the ASEAN Regional Forum in Singapore.

Ri said that the key to the complete implementation of the joint declaration announced after the United States-North Korea summit in June is to build mutual trust, stressing both sides must take simultaneous actions and phased steps in order to build sufficient trust.

The North Korean minister criticized that in spite of the U.S. leadership's intentions, there are insistent attempts within the United States to go back to the old. He claimed that the United States is even putting pressure on countries to refrain from dispatching delegates to the North's 70th founding anniversary event in September.

The transcript of the speech was released by the North's delegation following the closed-door session joined by the top diplomats of more than two dozen countries, including U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.