U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday his administration had made tremendous progress with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and did not feel pressed to conclude a quick agreement with Pyongyang on denuclearization. Trump, speaking at a Cabinet meeting, said time was not of the essence in dealing with Pyongyang.

The DPRK suggested on Tuesday that talks aimed at getting it to abandon its nuclear weapons would be put at risk if Washington breaks a promise not to hold military drills with the Republic of Korea (ROK).

A spokesperson of the DPRK's foreign ministry made the remark, referring to the 19-2 Dong Maeng exercise slated for next month.

"If the military exercise really goes ahead, it would affect the DPRK-U.S. working-level talks," the spokesperson said, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). "We will formulate our decision on the opening of the DPRK-U.S. working-level talks, while keeping watch over the U.S. move hereafter."

The U.S. State Department said it remained upbeat over promises made by leader Kim Jong Un to Trump at a February summit in Vietnam and then during Trump's dramatic walk across the Demilitarized Zone into the DPRK on June 30.

"From our perspective, we would hope that no one would try to block, in their government or our government, the ability for President Trump and Chairman Kim to make progress on the commitments they made to each other in Vietnam," State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus told reporters. "We look forward, of course, to resuming those negotiations and we hope to talk, always, so we can advance progress on these commitments," Ortagus said.

She declined to comment directly on DPRK's reaction to next month's military drills, referring the question to the Pentagon, or to give a date for talks.

Last month's mini-summit agreed to resume working-level talks between the two countries to lay the groundwork for a future deal.

Ortagus said that Stephen Biegun, the U.S. negotiator on the DPRK, "will quietly continue to make progress behind the scenes."

(With input from AFP, Reuters)