North Korea crisis: US in 'direct contact' with secretive state as it attempts to halt weapons programme

The US has said it is in “direct contact” with North Korea over its missile programme
AP
Sean Morrison @seanmorrison_30 September 2017

The US is in “direct contact” with North Korea as it seeks to encourage the regime to abandon its build-up of nuclear missiles, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said.

His comments came in Bejing after holding talks with Chinese leaders amid the rising tensions over the rogue regime’s military programme.

It was not previously known that Washington had lines of communication with Pyongyang.

"We are probing [the possibility of talks], so stay tuned," Mr Tillerson told reporters.

North Korea leader Kim Jong Un inspecting what state media claims was the loading of a hydrogen bomb into a new intercontinental ballistic missile
AP

"We ask. We have lines of communication with Pyongyang. We're not in a dark situation, a blackout, we have a couple, three channels open to Pyongyang."

He added: "We can talk to them, we do talk to them.”

And it comes after Donald Trump has threatened to annihilate North Korea, attacking its leader Kim Jong-un, saying he is on “a suicide mission”.

The US President’s repeated threats led the North’s leader to in statement vow to “tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire”.

The war of words has escalated while Pyongyang tested several missiles, and claim to have successfully tested a miniaturised hydrogen bomb that could be attached to a long-range missile.

Its tests have been condemned internationally, with sanctions being brought by the UN in an attempt to force the secretive state to halt its weapons programme.

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