The US State Department on Tuesday said that North Korea’s overall programme of weapons of mass destruction violated UN resolutions, after President Donald Trump brushed off recent missile launches.

She said the United States wanted a favorable relationship between Trump and Kim with a goal to “negotiate a peaceful end to the North Korean WMD programme.” “We have said many times and we will continue to reiterate that the economic sanctions will remain in place until we’re there,” she said.

Choosing words carefully after Trump’s latest warm words for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus declined to say if North Korea’s launches were of ballistic missiles or constituted weapons of mass destruction .

“I think the entire North Korean WMD program, it’s in conflict with the UN Security resolutions,” Ortagus told reporters on Tuesday.

When he arrived in Japan for a weekend state visit, Trump tweeted that North Korea had tested “some small weapons” that had “disturbed some of my people, and others, but not me.” He appeared to be referring to his National Security Adviser John Bolton, who said Saturday there was “no doubt” that North Korea’s launches had contravened United Nations Security Council resolutions.