President Trump demands North Korea's Kim Jong Un live up to denuclearization agreement

WASHINGTON — Following the rebuff of his secretary of State in Pyongyang, President Donald Trump sent a semi-threatening message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Monday to live up to their denuclearization agreement.

"I have confidence that Kim Jong Un will honor the contract we signed &, even more importantly, our handshake," Trump tweeted. "We agreed to the denuclearization of North Korea. China, on the other hand, may be exerting negative pressure on a deal because of our posture on Chinese Trade-Hope Not!"

The tweet came after the chilly reception Secretary of State Mike Pompeo received over the weekend in North Korea, prompting worries that talks about North Korea's nuclear weapons are falling apart.

Pompeo wanted the North Koreans to commit to specific steps toward denuclearized, but Kim refused to meet with Trump's top diplomat.

The North Koreans accused the Trump administration of making "unilateral" demands with a "gangster-like mindset."

Pompeo brushed aside North Korean rhetoric, telling reporters, "We had detailed, substantive conversations about the next steps toward a fully verified and complete denuclearization."

Critics of Trump said the document that Trump and Kim signed during their June 12 summit in Singapore was not a contract, but a very general commitment that lacked specifics on how the U.S might monitor and verify North Korea attempts to dismantle nuclear weapons programs.

"There was no contract.No  agreement," tweeted David Rothkopf, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "The handshake was meaningless. Prediction:We will have lies then recriminations  & then tensions again."

Like Trump, some U.S. lawmakers blamed China for North Korea's renewed aggressive attitude, describing it as Chinese pushback for its trade dispute with the U.S. president.

"I see China's hands all over this; we are in a fight with China," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaking on Fox News Sunday. "So, if I were President Trump, I would not let China use North Korea to back me off of the trade dispute."

WPXI