Tillerson Suggests North Korea May Soon Be Ready for Talks
But I want to acknowledge the steps they’ve taken so far.”
As for the stick, the Trump administration announced new sanctions against China
and Russia on Tuesday as part of its campaign to pressure North Korea to stop its development of nuclear weapons and missiles.
At that time, he said that negotiations could “only be achieved by denuclearizing, giving up their weapons of mass destruction,” and
that “only then will we be prepared to engage them in talks.”
In recent months, he has suggested that Pyongyang only had to demonstrate
that it was serious about a new path before talks could begin, suggesting that a significant pause in the country’s provocative activities would be enough.
WASHINGTON — In some of the most conciliatory remarks to North Korea made by the Trump administration, Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson
complimented the government in Pyongyang for going more than two weeks without shooting any missiles or blowing up any nuclear bombs.
The two moves are part of the Trump administration’s dual-track strategy for taming the nuclear threat from North Korea — ratcheting
up economic pressure on the government through sanctions while simultaneously offering a diplomatic pathway to peace.
“It is unacceptable for individuals and companies in China, Russia
and elsewhere to enable North Korea to generate income used to develop weapons of mass destruction and destabilize the region,” Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, said in a statement on Tuesday
