Secretary of State Tillerson talks tough on North Korea

He pointedly noted that 20 years of “diplomatic and other efforts” had failed to dissuade the isolated communist government from developing its nuclear programme, which he called an “ever-escalating threat”.

Japan is seeking clues to Washington’s policies on a volatile North Korea and a rising China while hoping to steer clear of trade rows during Tillerson’s visit. But Secretary of State Rex Tillerson went too far during his current swing through Asia by seeming to suggest that the United States might engage in a preemptive military strike against North Korea. “We exchanged views on the situation in the region, including on the Korean Peninsula”, he stressed.

North Korea has a long-standing ambition to become a nuclear power and conducted its first underground atomic test in 2006, in the teeth of global opposition. Presumably the U.S.is also continuing cyber-attacks against the North Korean nuclear program. Trump said on Twitter. “So we look to China to fulfill its obligations and fully implement the sanctions called for in the United Nations resolutions”, Tillerson said.

In particular, Tillerson wanted China to be active in enforcing sanctions imposed on the North for its repeated violations of United Nations resolutions, said the report.

The tour, which also includes South Korea and China, is Tillerson’s first major foray into crisis diplomacy, after brief trips to Bonn and Mexico City.

“North Korea will freeze and then dismantle its nuclear program”.

In Japan, government officials are eager to build a relationship with Tillerson, who is relatively inexperienced in matters pertaining to Asia and who now has a depleted staff at the State Department to advise him on the region. “If in case a missile falls, we will be entirely destroyed, you know?” one resident told Ruptly news agency. “Part of the goal of my visit to the region is to exchange views on a new approach”, Tillerson noted on Friday in a press conference with his Japanese counterpart, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida.

That deal collapsed in 2002 and years of stop-start efforts to reach a new deal have amounted to little, with North Korea actively pursuing nuclear weapons and the missiles with which to deliver them, according to the report.

Even without a press corps, Tillerson managed to make headlines.

Mr Tillerson also emphasised yesterday that there can be “no space” between the US, Japan and South Korea in dealing with the North, in urging Tokyo and Seoul to take “earnest and honest efforts” to fulfil the bilateral pact on comfort women in 2015, in which Seoul agreed to take action over comfort women statues in exchange for an apology and compensation from Tokyo.

Tillerson’s comments were unusual, however, as he appeared to be implying, in public, that the US would consider military force as a way of preventing an attack by Pyongyang, and not just as a means of retaliation. The two will hold a joint press conference before going into the talks.

A senior Chinese official told CNN this week that Beijing plans to present its own plan to Tillerson during his visit.

After visiting the DMZ, Tillerson is due to meet Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, who is also acting president.