Tillerson urges long halt to North Korea weapons tests before any talks

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson delivers remarks to members of the press after a meeting about North Korea's nuclear program at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, U.S. December 15, 2017. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith

Tillerson’s remarks were a retreat from his position earlier this week when he offered to begin direct talks with North Korea without preconditions, backing away from a key U.S. demand that Pyongyang must first accept that giving up its nuclear arsenal would be part of any negotiations.

But the White House distanced itself from those remarks by Tillerson and said now is not the time for negotiations.

“North Korea must earn its way back to the table. The pressure campaign must and will continue until denuclearization is achieved,” Tillerson told a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on North Korea’s weapons programs. He did not specify how long the lull should last.

He told reporters after the meeting that the United States would not accept any preconditions for talks with North Korea.

Tillerson had raised hopes this week that the United States and North Korea could negotiate to resolve their standoff when he said that the United States was “ready to talk any time North Korea would like to talk.”

North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations on Friday made no mention of Tillerson’s call for a halt to testing when he addressed the same U.N. meeting.

Ambassador Ja Song Nam said his country would not pose a threat to any state, as long as its interests were not infringed upon.

He described the Security Council session as “a desperate measure plotted by the United States being terrified by the incredible might of our Republic that has successfully achieved the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force.”

North Korea has made clear it has little interest in negotiations with the United States until it has developed the ability to hit the U.S. mainland with a nuclear-tipped missile, something most experts say it has yet to prove.

North Korea conducted missile tests at a steady pace since April, then paused in September after firing a rocket that passed over Japan’s Hokkaido island.

But it renewed tests in November when it fired a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-15, which flew higher and further than previous tests.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono told the Security Council that North Korea was “nowhere near ready” to abandon its nuclear and missile programs and was not interested in a meaningful dialogue. He said any lull in missile tests did not mean that North Korea was sitting idly.