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U.S.' Tillerson sees possible path to North Korea dialogue 'in near future'

By David Brunnstrom and Yeganeh Torbati

 

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson speaks at a press briefing at the State Department in Washington, U.S., August 22, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appeared to make a peace overture to North Korea on Tuesday, welcoming what he called the restraint it had shown recently in its weapons programs and saying he hoped a path could be opening for dialogue "sometime in the near future.""We have had no missile launches or provocative acts on the part of North Korea since the unanimous adoption of the U.N. Security Council resolution," Tillerson told reporters, referring to U.N. sanctions on North Korea agreed on Aug. 5.

 

"We hope that this is the beginning of this signal that we've been looking for - that they are ready to restrain their level of tensions, they're ready to restrain their provocative acts, and that perhaps we are seeing our pathway to sometime in the near future having some dialogue," Tillerson added.

 

Tillerson said he was "pleased" Pyongyang had "demonstrated some level of restraint that we've not seen in the past."

"We need to see more on their part, but I want to acknowledge the steps they've taken thus far," he said.

 

Tillerson's words appeared aimed at encouraging dialogue, even though the State Department this month said North Korea had "a long way to go" before Washington would consider talks.

 

North Korea has conducted two nuclear tests and dozens of missile tests since the start of last year and Washington says the aim of any future talks must be denuclearisation, something Pyongyang has rejected as long as the United States maintains a "hostile policy" towards it.

 

North Korea's last missile test was of a second intercontinental ballistic missile on July 28. This put the U.S. mainland in range, prompting heated exchanges of threats and rhetoric that raised fears of a new conflict on the Korean Peninsula.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this month warned North Korea it would face "fire and fury" if it threatened the United States. Pyongyang responded by threatening to fire missiles towards the U.S. Pacific island territory of Guam, but later said it was holding off while it waited to see what the United States would do next.

 

TRUMP'S PRAISE

 

Last week, Trump praised North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for his "wise" decision, while U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he had told Russia, Japan, the United States, China and North and South Korea he was available to help broker talks.

 

So-called six-party talks aimed at persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programme collapsed in 2008 following a North Korean rocket launch, after which Pyongyang said it was pulling out of a 2005 agreement to freeze the programme.

 

In May, North Korea thumbed its nose at Tillerson personally by testing a missile just after the U.S. secretary of state chaired a U.N. Security Council meeting at which he warned that failure to curb Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs could lead to "catastrophic consequences."

 

Tillerson's remarks on Tuesday came just after the United States announced new North Korea-related sanctions targeting Chinese and Russian firms and individuals for supporting Pyongyang's weapons programs.

 

China and Russia backed the U.N. sanctions but both countries have urged the United States to enter dialogue with North Korea in return for a freeze in weapons testing.

 

North Korea's envoy to a disarmament conference in Geneva, Ju Yong Chol, reiterated North Korea's stance on talks earlier on Tuesday.

 

"As long as the U.S. hostile policy and nuclear threat remains unchallenged, (North Korea) will never place its self-defensive nuclear deterrence on the negotiating table or step back an inch from the path it took to bolster the national nuclear force," he said.

 

Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies, said there was a need for clearer U.S. messaging vis-a-vis North Korea.

 

"I wonder if Kim Jong Un will interpret Tillerson's remark as a positive gesture or a challenge to which he will respond with a missile test," she said.

 

"It must be tough for the North Koreans to make sense of all the different signals from the Trump administration. I hope that privately there is clear messaging about what is needed for resumption of dialogue, and what U.S. offers are on the table."

 

(Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati and David Brunnstrom, writing by Tim Ahmann; editing by Cynthia Osterman and G Crosse)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-08-23

[Dave67]

I hope he said the same thing to Trump

[LannaGuy]

Well Trump is a megalomaniac but he did something no other POTUS has done (and certainly not Obama) he called the N.Koreans bluff and they backed down. No missiles towards Guam and possibility of resolution with the US in charge.

[Dave67]

2 hours ago, LannaGuy said:

Well Trump is a megalomaniac but he did something no other POTUS has done (and certainly not Obama) he called the N.Koreans bluff and they backed down. No missiles towards Guam and possibility of resolution with the US in charge.

I think it's more a China  wading in, the Man child shutting his gob and the advice of others, He is now free to invade Venezuela

[LannaGuy]

13 minutes ago, Dave67 said:

I think it's more a China  wading in, the Man child shutting his gob and the advice of others, He is now free to invade Venezuela

Nah, whatever you think his threat did it. China would have sat there with it's huge trade with the regime and done nothing. They backed down after his 'fire and fury' speech. Period.

[Credo]

10 minutes ago, LannaGuy said:

Nah, whatever you think his threat did it. China would have sat there with it's huge trade with the regime and done nothing. They backed down after his 'fire and fury' speech. Period.

Nice try, but little Kimmy and his family have doing the same thing for years, and years andd years and with many different presidents.   Nothing new.   

 

The next round will be when he has a bunch of new missiles and other toys to shoot off and scare the poop out of the world for a while.   Then he will crawl back under his rock.

 

One nuclear weapon isn't going to do much against what he faces from not just the US, but its allies.    

 

Hopefully the UN sanctions will slow him down a little.   

Edited August 23, 2017 by Credo

[LannaGuy]

5 minutes ago, Credo said:

Nice try, but little Kimmy and his family have doing the same thing for years, and years andd years and with many different presidents.   Nothing new.   

 

The next round will be when he has a bunch of new missiles and other toys to shoot off and scare the poop out of the world for a while.   Then he will crawl back under his rock.

 

One nuclear weapon isn't going to do much against what he faces from not just the US, but its allies.    

 

Hopefully the UN sanctions will slow him down a little.   

You'd like it to be that way, for political reasons, but your being disingenuous 

[Scott]

4 minutes ago, LannaGuy said:

You'd like it to be that way, for political reasons, but your being disingenuous 

....and you are trolling.   Continue at your own peril.  

[craigt3365]

11 minutes ago, Credo said:

Nice try, but little Kimmy and his family have doing the same thing for years, and years andd years and with many different presidents.   Nothing new.   

 

The next round will be when he has a bunch of new missiles and other toys to shoot off and scare the poop out of the world for a while.   Then he will crawl back under his rock.

 

One nuclear weapon isn't going to do much against what he faces from not just the US, but its allies.    

 

Hopefully the UN sanctions will slow him down a little.   

I spent some time reading the history of all this. It's been going on for far too long. Now, finding out they are supplying chemicals to Syria.

 

Time for the world community to come together and deal with the this. Sadly, money comes first. Especially for China. They are a key player.

 

Nice post!

[Dave67]

31 minutes ago, LannaGuy said:

Nah, whatever you think his threat did it. China would have sat there with it's huge trade with the regime and done nothing. They backed down after his 'fire and fury' speech. Period.

So he risked a world war to win then, well done Don

 

Un is no fool and the chance of the US shooting down one of his beloved missiles would have been a massive loss of face

 

So much shit happens daily with The Don I can't recall the order of threats, I thought NK hit back with threats to Guam 

Edited August 23, 2017 by Dave67

[LannaGuy]

30 minutes ago, Dave67 said:

So he risked a world war to win then, well done Don

 

Un is no fool and the chance of the US shooting down one of his beloved missiles would have been a massive loss of face

 

So much shit happens daily with The Don I can't recall the order of threats, I thought NK hit back with threats to Guam 

They did but backed down?  sensitive topic it seems and I don't want to be banned again  :)

[Dave67]

4 minutes ago, LannaGuy said:

They did but backed down?  sensitive topic it seems and I don't want to be banned again  :)

Welcome to North Korea

[Credo]

2 minutes ago, LannaGuy said:

They did but backed down?  sensitive topic it seems and I don't want to be banned again  :)

You might want to take a gander at this topic:

 

 

Seems Mr. Kim isn't really backing down.   So what will your hero do now?   He's busy with Afghanistan this week and his ships keep going bump in the night.   

 

[LannaGuy]

11 minutes ago, Credo said:

You might want to take a gander at this topic:

 

 

Seems Mr. Kim isn't really backing down.   So what will your hero do now?   He's busy with Afghanistan this week and his ships keep going bump in the night.   

 

What hero?  you are greatly mistaken. Trump's a megalomaniac but that does not mean everything he does is bad 

[boomerangutang]

3 hours ago, LannaGuy said:

Well Trump is a megalomaniac but he did something no other POTUS has done (and certainly not Obama) he called the N.Koreans bluff and they backed down. No missiles towards Guam and possibility of resolution with the US in charge.

I see it differently.  Prior presidents and their Sec's of State have spoken firmly (and with cool heads) and encouraged input of other interested countries.  Trump, as we've come to expect, went shooting his mouth off with threats.  Kim did a knee jerk reaction ("send a bomb near Guam"), and then backed off.   The threat to Guam would not have happened were it not for Trump's fiery rhetoric.   

 

If I threaten to throw a molotov cocktail at your house, and then you threaten to throw one at my car, am I a great statesman, if you then decide to not throw one at my car?

[craigt3365]

11 minutes ago, LannaGuy said:

What hero?  you are greatly mistaken. Trump's a megalomaniac but that does not mean everything he does is bad 

What has he done that's good? Maybe one executive order, but that's about it. Sadly, anything he's done that's potentially good is massively outweighed by his bs.

 

Glad Kelly is on board and trying to keep Trump in line. Best of luck with that.  Lol

[LannaGuy]

2 minutes ago, craigt3365 said:

What has he done that's good? Maybe one executive order, but that's about it. Sadly, anything he's done that's potentially good is massively outweighed by his bs.

 

Glad Kelly is on board and trying to keep Trump in line. Best of luck with that.  Lol

I am not a Trump fan at all so please do not misinterpret what I have said. We talk about N.Korea only on this thread and I feel they backed down. That's it.

[LannaGuy]

3 minutes ago, boomerangutang said:

I see it differently.  Prior presidents and their Sec's of State have spoken firmly (and with cool heads) and encouraged input of other interested countries.  Trump, as we've come to expect, went shooting his mouth off with threats.  Kim did a knee jerk reaction ("send a bomb near Guam"), and then backed off.   The threat to Guam would not have happened were it not for Trump's fiery rhetoric.   

 

If I threaten to throw a molotov cocktail at your house, and then you threaten to throw one at my car, am I a great statesman, if you then decide to not throw one at my car?

Maybe but we cannot be sure. But Trump called his bluff and won and that is all I am saying.

[Credo]

We have been listening to crap from NK for years.   They have 'captured' tourists, ex-presidents and basketball legends and Sec's of State have gone to get them or help in their release.   

 

He has always backed down.   There is no firm evidence that he has been able to miniaturize nuclear weapons to the size that would hit anywhere significant.   There is no evidence that his missile technology can actually guide a missile to a specific target -- unless the Pacific Ocean or the Sea of Japan is a target.

 

Kim is like a guy who has brought a knife to a gun fight.   He WILL lose.   Trump is nothing more than a loud mouthed bully and it will come back to bite him in the backside.   

[Credo]

7 minutes ago, LannaGuy said:

Maybe but we cannot be sure. But Trump called his bluff and won and that is all I am saying.

Name one time when Kim wasn't bluffing?   That's all he has ever done.   It's like playing tennis with Stevie Wonder, you can't lose!!

 

[Jonnapat]

The Secretary of State appears to be the only stable and reasoned voice in an otherwise dysfunctional government