U.S. President Donald Trump, who earlier this year demanded that North Korea swiftly give up its nuclear weapons, has said that it could take years to achieve those results in negotiations.
"I think we're really going to do something that's going to be very important, but we're not playing the time game," Trump told a news conference in New York. "If it takes two years, three years, or five months -- doesn't matter."
Trump's comments came as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was making plans to visit Pyongyang again next month to prepare for a second summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Trump held an unprecedented first summit with Kim in Singapore on June 12 that yielded a broad pledge by Kim to "work toward" denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Trump said afterward he expected results within months.
Since then, however, Kim's actions have fallen far short of Washington's demands, which range from providing a complete inventory of North Korea's nuclear weapons to taking irreversible steps to give up its nuclear arsenal.
Despite the lack of progress, Trump has boasted repeatedly of having "a wonderful relationship" with Kim and said he expects the two to eventually clinch a deal.