U.S. President Donald Trump said he told Secretary of State Rex Tillerson he is “wasting his time” trying to negotiate with North Korea’s leader.
“Save your energy Rex, we’ll do what has to be done!” Trump wrote Sunday on Twitter, referring to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un as “Little Rocket Man”.
Saturday, the State Department said North Korea has shown no interest in pursuing talks on its nuclear and missile programs, after Tillerson acknowledged the United States has been communicating directly with Pyongyang.
“North Korean officials have shown no indication that they are interested in or are ready for talks regarding denuclearization,” spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement, “despite assurances that the United States is not interested in promoting the collapse of the current regime, pursuing regime change, accelerating reunification of the peninsula or mobilizing forces north of the DMZ.”
Tillerson was in Beijing on Saturday seeking China’s cooperation on a “maximum pressure” campaign against North Korea when he revealed the United States had opened a direct channel of communication with Pyongyang and was investigating whether the government of Kim Jong Un was interested in pursuing talks to give up its nuclear weapons.
