The White House is promoting the president's summit next week with Kim Jong-un as an opportunity for the two leaders to continue the conversation they started last summer. President Trump said this week that he expects to 'accomplish a lot' in two days of talks with the North Korean dictator, set to take place on Feb. 27 and 28 Vietnam. His spokeswoman dramatically lowered the bar on Friday, however, as she claimed that 'only' reporters are suggesting that something other than a positive relationship between the two leaders is an ascertainable goal. 'I think that the only one setting high expectations is probably the media,' she said during an interview on Fox News. 'He's had a great success here, in the fact that they're able to even sit down at the table. The fact that he's able to do it again, is itself a big success.' The administration is also softening its language on sanctions, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claiming that the punishing actions will stay in place until the U.S. is 'confident that we’ve substantially reduced' the risk of a nuclear North Korea. The White House is promoting the president's summit next week with Kim Jong-un as an opportunity for the two leaders to continue the conversation they started last summer The administration is also softening its language on sanctions, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claiming that the punishing actions will stay in place until the U.S. is 'confident that we’ve substantially reduced' the risk of a nuclear North Korea Trump insisted all of last year that crippling sanctions would not be lifted until Pyongyang had submitted to complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization requirements. Nuclear weapons are banned by the United Nations, and North Korea has been in violation of treaties barring tests for decades. The U.S. president says that his predecessors are at fault for entering weak agreements, and he has made more progress in two years toward reducing the risk of nuclear annihilation than they ever did. 'I don’t think they’re reluctant. I think they want to do something,' he said of denucleariation Wednesday in the Oval Office. 'They’ve been talking about this for many, many years, and no administration has done anything. They’ve gotten taken to the cleaners.' Pyongyang has stopped testing ballistic missiles and it has returned U.S. hostages and the remains of American soldiers from the Korean War, he routinely points out. 'When we started, as you know, there were a lot of problems,' he again noted on Wednesday. 'There was the missiles going all over. There were hostages that were being held. There were remains that we wanted to get back. There were many, many things. He reflected, 'And we have a good relationship — a very good relationship, I’d say.' Experts warn that North Korea has made similar overtures in the past only to recommence testing once economic pressure is lifted. Trump says he won't allow that to happen, as evidenced by his refusal to lift sanctions until North Korea follows through on its commitment in Singapore last July to get rid of its nuclear arsenal. 'The sanctions are on in full. As you know, I haven’t taken sanctions off. I’d love to be able to, but in order to do that, we have to do something that’s meaningful on the other side,' he stated on Wednesday. His declaration that only 'meaningful' progress would stimulate the removal sanctions was a climb down from his previous pledges. Pompeo similarly suggested that the U.S. could ease sanctions Thursday on 'Today' as he previewed the summit. 'The American people should know we have the toughest economic sanctions that have ever been placed on North Korea, and we won’t release that pressure until such time as we’re confident that we’ve substantially reduced that risk,' he said in a carefully-worded answer. He denied that Trump is ratcheting down expectations for the summit on Wednesday morning Fox Business. Yet he claimed, 'I hope we can make real progress, that Chairman Kim will begin to fulfill the commitment he made in June in Singapore of last year to denuclearize his own country.' Appearing on 'Fox & Friends' on Friday morning, Sanders, the White House spokeswoman, promised even less than that. She said to 'expect continued conversations between the two leaders' in Vietnam. 'We've got a long way to go, and we'll see what happens, but we're continuing to make progress, and this is another great step for the president and Chairman Kim to be able to sit down and continue those conversations,' she stated. All rights reserved for this news site dailymail and under his responsibility