North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “still has the intention to denuclearize,” South Korea’s foreign minister nominee Chung Eui-yong said at his confirmation hearing on Friday.

“He is honoring the moratorium [on nuclear and long-range missile testing],” Chung said at the National Assembly in Seoul. He added that North Korea’s continued display of new weapons may be a strategy to sustain leverage in negotiations, appearing to imply that Kim Jong Un does not intend to close the door on diplomatic progress.