U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, left, shakes hands with China’s President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People on Saturday in Beijing.
BEIJING – Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the United States is in direct contact with North Korea and is probing whether the Kim Jong Un regime is open to talks.
“We are probing, so stay tuned,” he told reporters during a day-long visit to China.
“We ask: Would you like to talk? We have lines of communications to Pyongyang. We’re not in a dark situation,” he said.
Tillerson’s second visit to Beijing comes amid an escalating standoff over how best to thwart North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, with the United States pressing China to do more to cut off Kim’s regime and China countering that they are pressing hard enough.
It is also part of the preparation for President Donald Trump’s planned visit to Asia in November.
