- \n
U.S. gets warm words from China’s Xi ahead of Trump visit<\/span><\/li>\n
U.S. “probing” to see if North Korea interested in dialogue: Tillerson<\/span><\/li>\n
China says U.S. should respect concerns on Taiwan<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
South Korean officials have voiced concerns that North Korea could conduct more provocative acts near the anniversary of the founding of its communist party on Oct. 10, or possibly when China holds its Communist Party Congress on Oct. 18. <\/p>\n
North Korea is fast advancing toward its goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. It conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sept. 3 and has threatened to test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific. <\/p>\n
ECONOMIC SQUEEZE <\/h3>\n
U.S. officials including Tillerson say Beijing, after long accounting for some 90 percent of North Korea\u2019s foreign trade, appears increasingly willing to cut ties to its neighbor\u2019s economy by adopting United Nations sanctions. <\/p>\n
Tillerson said he believed China\u2019s more assertive posture was due to its realization that North Korea\u2019s nuclear and missile capabilities had advanced too far. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think they also have a sense that we\u2019re beginning to run out of time, and that we really have to change the dynamic,\u201d Tillerson said. <\/p>\n
The goal of the sanctions would be getting North Korea\u2019s Kim to view nuclear weapons as a liability, not a strength. <\/p>\n
Still, the U.S. intelligence community does not believe Kim is likely to give up his weapons program willingly, regardless of sanctions. <\/p>\n
\u201c(Tillerson\u2018s) working against the unified view of our intelligence agencies, which say there\u2019s no amount of pressure that can be put on them to stop,\u201d Senator Bob Corker told a hearing at the chamber on Thursday. <\/p>\n
Kim sees nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles as \u201chis ticket to survival,\u201d Corker said. <\/p>\n
Tillerson agreed that Kim\u2019s nuclear and missile programs were aimed at ensuring his own security, and renewed assurances that the United States did not seek to topple Kim\u2019s government. <\/p>\n
\u201cLook, our objective is denuclearization (of North Korea). Our objective is not to get rid of you. Our objective is not to collapse your regime,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
INCREMENTAL STEPS <\/h3>\n
It is unclear how and when any actual negotiations with Pyongyang might be possible. <\/p>\n
White House National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said on Monday there were no set preconditions for talks. He added, however, that Pyongyang\u2019s capabilities were too far advanced to simply freeze its program in return for concessions. <\/p>\n
He also dismissed the idea of negotiating with Pyongyang even as it continued to develop its nuclear weapons program. <\/p>\n
Tillerson in March suggested the United States would only engage North Korea in negotiations once it gave up nuclear weapons. <\/p>\n
But he acknowledged on Saturday that denuclearization would be an \u201cincremental process.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019d be foolish to think you\u2019re going to sit down and say: Okay, done. Nuclear weapons, gone. This is going to be a process of engagement with North Korea,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Trump, who is due to visit China in November, has called for it to do more regarding North Korea and has promised to take steps to rebalance a trade relationship that his administration says puts U.S. businesses at a disadvantage. <\/p>\n
Chinese President Xi Jinping did not mention North Korea in his opening remarks while meeting Tillerson on Saturday. He instead offered warm words about Trump, saying he expected the U.S. president\u2019s visit to be \u201cwonderful.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe two of us have also maintained a good working relationship and personal friendship,\u201d Xi said in comments in front of reporters. <\/p>\n
Reporting by Phil Stewart, Ben Blanchard and Michael Martina in Beijing; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Chizu Nomiyama<\/p>\n
Article source: http:\/\/feeds.reuters.com\/~r\/Reuters\/PoliticsNews\/~3\/D-tK1wQhB6c\/u-s-directly-communicating-with-north-korea-seeks-dialogue-idUSKCN1C435K<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEIJING (Reuters) – The United States said on Saturday it was directly communicating with North Korea, seeking to start a dialogue with Pyongyang as its advancing nuclear and missile programs stoke fears of an armed confrontation. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made the disclosure about the communications during a trip to China and said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-93590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93590\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}