WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U. S.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson offered on Tuesday to begin direct talks with North Korea without pre-conditions, backing away from U. S. demands that Pyongyang must first accept that any negotiations would have to be about giving up its nuclear arsenal. “Let’s just meet,” Tillerson said in a speech to Washington’s Atlantic Council think tank, presenting a new diplomatic overture amid heightened tensions over North Korea’s nuclear and missile advances and harsh rhetoric between the two sides. Tensions have flared anew since North Korea said it had successfully tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile last month in what it called a “breakthrough” that put the U. S. mainland within range. While reiterating Washington’s long-standing position that it cannot tolerate a nuclear-armed North Korea, Tillerson said the United States was “ready to talk any time they’re ready to talk”, but that there would first have to be a “period of quiet” without nuclear and missile tests. Tillerson also disclosed that the United States had been talking to China about how to secure North Korea’s nuclear weapons in the event of a collapse of the government in Pyongyang, and that Beijing had been given assurances that if U. S. forces had to cross into North Korea they would pull back across the border into the South. But he made clear that the United States wants to resolve the North Korea standoff through peaceful diplomacy and, in terms far more tempered than President Donald Trump’s recent threats against Pyongyang, offered to hold exploratory talks. “We can talk about the weather if you want. We can talk about whether it’s going to be a square table or a round table,” he said. “Then we can begin to lay out a map, a road map, of what we might be willing to work towards,” Tillerson said, suggesting that any initial contacts would be about setting the ground rules for formal negotiations.
