US urges talks ‘ without preconditions’

Washington, Dec. 13: The United States is ready to talk to North Korea “without preconditions” but remains determined to force it to abandon its nuclear arsenal, secretary of state Rex Tillerson said on Tuesday.

While White House press secretary Sarah Sanders did not spell out the President’s views, Mr Trump in the past has chided his secretary of state for “wasting his time” trying to negotiate with Pyongyang.

In two public appearances on Tuesday, Mr Tillerson warned that these efforts would continue until “the first bomb drops” and that Washington “simply cannot accept a nucleararmed North Korea.”

But he said the door to talks with Mr Kim’s regime was open, and left the opening wider than he had before, backing away from his former insistence that Pyongyang accept in principle to disarm.

“We’re ready to have the first meeting without preconditions,” Tillerson told a meeting of the Atlantic Council policy forum, speaking of the possibility of laying out a roadmap of goals.

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“It’s not realistic to say we’re only going to talk if you come to the table ready to give up your program. They have too much invested in it.”

A senior UN official returning from Pyongyang said that North Korean officials had told him it was important to prevent war but offered no concrete proposal for talks.

— AFP This December 12 picture released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency ( KCNA) on December 13 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong- un attending the 8th Conference of Munitions Industry in Pyongyang.