
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday that he is still in charge of the team negotiating with North Korea over its banned nuclear programme.
"Nothing has changed," Pompeo told a news conference after a meeting with Japan's foreign and defence ministers. "We continue to work."
"Still in charge of the team," he added.
North Korea on Thursday described Pompeo as 'reckless' and immature and demanded his removal from the talks.
"I am afraid that, if Pompeo engages in the talks again, the table will be lousy once again and the talks will become entangled," Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the ministry's Department of American Affairs said, according to the official KCNA news agency.
Pompeo has travelled to Pyongyang for four times in the last year.
US President Donald Trump has talkedfondly about his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un after their second summit in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Since the beginning of the thaw in relations between the US and North Korea, Pyongyang has been far happier to deal directly with Trump, who critics fear is too soft on the regime and is not sufficiently versed in diplomacy.