UNITED NATIONS: North Korea must “earn its way back” to the negotiating table, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Friday, backing away from an earlier unconditional offer of talks to end the nuclear stand-off with Pyongyang.

Tillerson told the UN Security Council that a “sustained cessation of North Korea’s threatening behaviour must occur before talks can begin,” apparently after coming under pressure from President Donald Trump’s White House to toughen his stance.

Earlier this week at a policy forum in Washington, Tillerson had underlined that the United States was seeking a diplomatic opening for negotiations with North Korea on ending its nuclear program and, for the first time, offered “talks with no preconditions.”

According to a prepared version of his remarks to the Security Council, he had planned to say much the same thing again on Friday, but the line was apparently cut from his speech.

The White House had responded to Tillerson’s remarks earlier in the week by insisting there has been no change in US policy, triggering a new round of reports of a rift between President Donald Trump and his chief diplomat.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2017