The White House says that the U.S. is against a phased lifting of sanctions as a reward for incremental progress in negotiations with North Korea on denuclearization. 

A White House National Security Council official told KBS on Wednesday that Washington is not interested in taking a phased, gradual approach to the North Korean nuclear issue. 

The official stressed that the Trump administration will not repeat the same mistakes of the past governments, hinting the U.S. will not lift sanctions until the North takes concrete actions towards a comprehensive, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization.

U.S. President Donald Trump also said the previous day that denuclearization simply means North Korea gets rid of its nuclear weapons, adding it would be easy for him to make a simple deal and declare victory but he doesn't want to do that.

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