Secretary of State Rex Tillerson slammed North Korea’s representative to the UN on Friday, directly rebutting his claim that the US is to blame for tensions on the Korean peninsula and declaring that he and the White House are in lockstep on policy.
During Friday’s specially convened UN Security Council meeting to discuss North Korea’s nuclear program, Tillerson clarified that “a sustained cessation of North Korea’s threatening behavior must occur before talks can begin. North Korea must earn its way back to the table.”
In the meantime, the US will continue a campaign to pressure North Korea diplomatically and financially, he said, as North Korea’s ambassador to the UN looked on. TIllerson added, “militarily we are going to be prepared should something go wrong.”
After North Korea’s ambassador Ja Song Nam addressed the council and described his country’s nuclear program as an “inevitable self-defense measure” against the US, which was “terrified by the incredible might of our republic” and its “nuclear force,” Tillerson asked for another chance to speak and hit back.
“There is but one party that has carried out illegal detonation of illegal devices, there is but one party that launches intercontinental ballistic missiles… that is the Kim regime in North Korea,” Tillerson said.
North Koreans “alone are responsible for these tensions, they alone must take responsibility for these tensions, and they alone can solve these tensions,” Tillerson said.
Tillerson said the acts of North Korea are a “clear violation” of international law that “cannot be ignored,” and added that the regime “must be held accountable.”
Later, in remarks to the press, Tillerson was asked directly to explain where the US stood on preconditions. He flipped the question, rejecting proposals from Russia and China for a “freeze for a freeze,” in which the US would halt military exercises and North Korea would stop nuclear development. “We are not going to accept preconditions,” Tillerson said.
“Our communication channels remain open,” he added. “North Korea knows they’re open, they know where the door is, they know where to walk through the door when they want to.”
He did not say a line that had appeared in his prepared comments, distributed by the State Department on embargo earlier in the day. Tillerson had been set to say that, “apart from that step, there are no preconditions for talks, nor will we accept pre-conditions from North Korea or others.”
Asked about the omission, the State Department’s undersecretary of public affairs, Steve Goldstein, said that “nobody took that out for him. The Secretary doesn’t speak word for word from prepared remarks and works to deliver the words that will be the most impactful to the audience he is addressing.
