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Rex Tillerson scales back offer of opening dialogue with North Korea
Source: The Guardian
Rex Tillerson scales back offer of opening dialogue with North Korea
The secretary of state omitted his line from earlier in the week on US openness to talks ‘without pre-conditions’ following a rebuke from the White House
Julian Borger in Washington
Friday 15 December 2017 19.52 GMT
Rex Tillerson has said that the US was keeping channels of communication open with North Korea but said Pyongyang would have to “earn its way back to the table” with a “sustained cessation of threatening behaviour”.
In his remarks at a ministerial meeting of the UN security council, the US secretary of state appeared to restate an offer of a dialogue following a pause in nuclear and missile testing that he made on Tuesday, but cast it in tougher language following a rebuke from the White House. Tillerson omitted a line restating US openness to talks “without pre-conditions” that had been in a text of his speech circulated earlier by the state department.
“As I said earlier this week, a sustained cessation of North Korea’s threatening behavior must occur before talks can begin. North Korea must earn its way back to the table,” Tillerson said. “The pressure campaign must, and will, continue until denuclearization is achieved. We will, in the meantime, keep our channels of communication open.”
Speaking later at the security council meeting, the North Korean envoy Ja Song-nam ignored the US secretary of state’s call for talks, claiming that the US was “terrified by the incredible might of our Republic that has successfully achieved the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force”
-snip-
The secretary of state omitted his line from earlier in the week on US openness to talks ‘without pre-conditions’ following a rebuke from the White House
Julian Borger in Washington
Friday 15 December 2017 19.52 GMT
Rex Tillerson has said that the US was keeping channels of communication open with North Korea but said Pyongyang would have to “earn its way back to the table” with a “sustained cessation of threatening behaviour”.
In his remarks at a ministerial meeting of the UN security council, the US secretary of state appeared to restate an offer of a dialogue following a pause in nuclear and missile testing that he made on Tuesday, but cast it in tougher language following a rebuke from the White House. Tillerson omitted a line restating US openness to talks “without pre-conditions” that had been in a text of his speech circulated earlier by the state department.
“As I said earlier this week, a sustained cessation of North Korea’s threatening behavior must occur before talks can begin. North Korea must earn its way back to the table,” Tillerson said. “The pressure campaign must, and will, continue until denuclearization is achieved. We will, in the meantime, keep our channels of communication open.”
Speaking later at the security council meeting, the North Korean envoy Ja Song-nam ignored the US secretary of state’s call for talks, claiming that the US was “terrified by the incredible might of our Republic that has successfully achieved the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force”
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/15/rex-tillerson-scales-back-offer-of-opening-dialogue-with-north-korea
