Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Monday left the door open for diplomacy with North Korea if the rogue regime will stop test-firing intercontinental ballistic missiles for an “extended period of time.”
“The best signal that North Korea could give us that they’re prepared to talk would be to stop these missile launches,” Tillerson said during a summit in the Philippines. “We’ve not had any extended period of time where they have not taken some type of provocative action by launching ballistic missiles. I think that would be the first and strongest signal they could send to us, would be to stop these missile launches.”
Asked about a deadline, he said, “We’ll know it when we see it.”
“We’re not going to give someone a specific number of days or weeks,” he said during a briefing at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Manila. “This is not ‘Give me 30 days and we’re ready to talk.’ It’s not quite that simple. It is all about how we see their attitude in approaching a dialogue with us.”
The United Nations Security Council on Saturday unanimously approved a series of economic sanctions against the regime of President Kim Jong Un for launching two intercontinental ballistic missiles last month.
The sanctions ban North Korea from exporting coal, lead and seafood and restrict other countries from importing the goods. Estimates say the penalties will cost Pyongyang about $1 billion a year — money that would have been used to fund its arms programs.
Following the sanctions, China warned North Korea to stop conducting missile tests.
“Do not violate the UN’s decision or provoke international society’s goodwill by conducting missile launching or nuclear tests,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Sunday at the diplomatic summit.
With wires