US seeks China’s help to ‘open dialogue’ with North Korea
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says the aim is to get Pyongyang to the negotiating table, softening US rhetoric after a series of North Korean missile tests
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said he wants to work with China and other allies for a chance to “engage” with North Korea, less than two days after Pyongyang flouted United Nations Security Council resolutions by launching three short-range missiles.
“We’re going to continue our peaceful pressure campaign ... working with allies, working with China as well, to see if we can bring the regime in Pyongyang to the negotiating table with a view to begin a dialogue on a different future for the Korean peninsula and for North Korea,” Tillerson said in an interview on Fox News on Sunday.
Tillerson expressed confidence in UN efforts, supported by China, to allow international pressure to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programme.
“There is also a unified international voice echoing our messages that no one wants to see a nuclear Korean peninsula, so we’re all unified in our mission to see a denuclearised Korean peninsula,” the top US diplomat said. “We hope for an opportunity to engage with them as to how we might achieve that.”
North Korea fired three short-range missiles into the sea off the coast of its eastern Kangwon province on Saturday, South Korea’s military said. The South Korean Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said the projectiles flew in a north-easterly direction for about 250km into the sea.