U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reaffirmed that the complete denuclearization of North Korea remains the goal of the upcoming summit between North Korea and the U.S.

During an interview with NBC on Thursday, Pompeo said that in order to keep the American people safe, the U.S. must reduce the threat of a nuclear North Korea by working on peace for the Korean Peninsula and creating a brighter future for the North Korean people. 

Pompeo stressed that the U.S. will not remove sanctions on North Korea until it's confident that it has substantially reduced the North's nuclear threat.

When asked about the possibility of declaring a formal end to the Korean War or reducing the amount of U.S. troops stationed in Korea, Pompeo refused to offer specifics on what the U.S. might offer as concessions, noting the objective of the U.S. is the complete, verifiable denuclearization of North Korea.

In a separate interview with the Fox Business Network, Pompeo said he hopes that the North’s denuclearization will materialize in the same unexpected way the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.

The secretary referenced his time as a young U.S. soldier patrolling the East German border and said no one anticipated that the wall would come down when it did.