CIA Director Mike Pompeo said Thursday that North Korea is months away from perfecting its nuclear weapons capabilities.

“They are close enough now in their capabilities that from a US policy perspective we ought to behave as if we are on the cusp of them achieving” their objective of being able to strike the United States, Pompeo told a national security forum in Washington, D.C.

In his words, however, US President Donald Trump is determined not to allow Pyongyang to make the respective breakthrough, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency.

Both Pompeo and US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster noted that, nonetheless, Trump would prefer to use sanctions and diplomacy to make North Korea sit at the negotiating table.