North Korea says it won’t engage in talks with U.S. that would get nowhere

North Korea said on Wednesday that it would not be engaging in talks with the United States that it believes would not make any progress.

“We are not considering even the possibility of any contact with the U.S., let alone having it, which would get us nowhere, only taking up precious time,” Foreign Minister Ri Son Gwon said, Reuters reported, citing state media.

North Korea and the U.S. have been at odds for years over the country’s nuclear missile program.

The new U.S. envoy for North Korea said he was looking for a “positive response soon” from the country, with Ri’s comment seemingly making that unlikely, Reuters noted.

Kim Jong Yo, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said on Tuesday after the envoy’s comments that the U.S.’s thoughts of a meeting “would plunge them into a greater disappointment.”

The back-and-forth between the two countries began recently when Kim Jong Un “stressed the need to get prepared for both dialogue and confrontation, especially to get fully prepared for confrontation” at a meeting last week.

“We are awaiting a clear signal from Pyongyang as to whether they are prepared to sit down at the table to begin working in that direction,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in response. “His comments this week we regard as an interesting signal. And we will wait to see whether they are followed up with any kind of more direct communication to us about a potential path forward.”