The U. S. Secretary of State describes threat of North Korea\u2019s nuclear capabilities as \u2018imminent.\u2019<\/b>
U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in an interview published Saturday that the situation in North Korea has reached \u201ca very alarming state.\u201d
Speaking to the Independent Journal Review, he said, \u201cWe will be talking about a broad range of issues when I\u2019m in Beijing. But the threat of North Korea is imminent. And it has reached a level that we are very concerned about the consequences of North Korea being allowed to continue on this progress it\u2019s been making on the development of both weapons and delivery system.\u201d
Tillerson arrived in Beijing on Saturday from Seoul, where he had outlined a more hard line approach against Pyongyang as North Korea edges closer to having the capability of mounting a nuclear warhead on a long-range ballistic missile. He met with South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se on Friday and said he would raise these same issues with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Sanctions, which have already been imposed by the United Nations Security Council resolutions, are one option to address North Korea, Tillerson said, \u201cand to ask that everyone fully implement those sanctions. And there are additional steps that we can take to increase the pressure on the regime in hopes that they will understand the path they\u2019re on is simply not sustainable.\u201d
North Korea is behaving very badly. They have been „playing“ the United States for years. China has done little to help!
Tillerson said the U. S. wanted to give the North Korean government time to make decisions and adjust. \u201cIt\u2019s not our objective to force them into some brash action,\u201d he said in the interview. \u201cIt\u2019s our objective for them to understand things only continue to get more difficult if they don\u2019t change their path. We want to give you time to change your path.\u201d
He also said he was not aware President Trump would tweet about North Korea during his trip. \u201cI did not know that he was going to tweet anything out,\u201d he added, \u201cbut the message that he sent out was very consistent with the message that I\u2019ve been delivering so far in Tokyo and in Seoul.\u201d He said he would ask the Chinese government, \u201cWhat are they willing to do? How far are they willing to go?\u201d
On Friday, Trump tweeted about North Korea and how it\u2019s been \u201cplaying\u201d the U. S. for years. He accused Pyongyang of \u201cbehaving very badly,\u201d just as Tillerson was conducting meetings in South Korea. \u201cThe North Korea challenge has come to our door, not by anything we\u2019ve done,\u201d Tillerson added. \u201cIt\u2019s come to us because of what North Korea\u2019s done. We\u2019ve had no control over them.\u201d<\/p>\n