U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Saturday that the Trump administration is in direct contact with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson acknowledged in Beijing on Saturday that the Trump administration is in “direct contact” with North Korea over its recent escalation of missile and nuclear tests.
“We’re not in a dark situation, a blackout,” Tillerson said at a briefing with some reporters in China. “We have a couple, three channels open to Pyongyang. We can talk to them, we do talk to them.”
“Stay tuned,” he said.
The acknowledgment suggests a potential deescalation after months of bellicose rhetoric on both sides, as well as repeated, provocative intercontinental ballistic missile tests and a nuclear test by North Korea. President Trump has threatened to rain “fire and fury” on North Korea, and destroy the country of 25 million people. In September, the isolated state’s leader Kim Jong Un called Trump a “mentally deranged U. S. dotard,” and Trump in turn has taken to calling him “Little Rocket Man.”
North Korea has not dialed back its war of words; on Saturday, its state media released a statement accusing Trump of working toward a “suicidal act of inviting a nuclear disaster that will reduce America to a sea of flames.”
Tillerson also said it was essential “to calm things down” between North Korea and the United States and its allies. Asked if that pertained to Trump as well, Tillerson told reporters, “I think the whole situation is a bit overheated right now. I think everyone would like for it to calm down.”
The secretary of State was in China in part to prepare for Trump’s trip there in November.
