Tillerson says US is ready for talks with North Korea

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said the United States is open to communication with North Korea 'without preconditions'.

The top American diplomat's statement marked a significant shift from previous US demands that North Korea disarm before negotiations could begin.

Tillerson said the US aws ready to talk at any time without preconditions in order to begin laying out a "roadmap" and make progress in negotiations. However, he also stipulated that if North Korea were to accept this offer then a "period of quiet" would be required, meaning among other things that they would have to put their missile test programme on hold.

"It’s going to be tough to talk if in the middle of our talks you decide to test another device," the Secretary of State said.

Nonetheless, Tillerson's objective was to prevent a conflict and he understood that no negotiations were possible if North Korea had to disarm beforehand.

"It’s not realistic to say we are only going to talk if you come to the table ready to give up your program. They have too much invested in it," he said.

Yet just a few hours later, the White House issued a statement saying that President Trump's views had not changed.

"North Korea is acting in an unsafe way not only toward Japan, China, and South Korea, but the entire world. North Korea's actions are not good for anyone and certainly not good for North Korea," said White House press secretary Sarah Sanders.

It wasn't the first time Tillerson had disagreed with Trump on that subject. Indeed, some time ago the President tweeted: "I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man [...] Save your energy Rex, we’ll do what has to be done!"

China and Russia, the other two main actors in the region, agreed with Tillerson although the former was already building refugee camps on its side of the border with North Korea just in case war did break out.

On Wednesday, the Chinese foreign ministry said it hoped the new initiative would lead to "meaningful steps towards dialogue and contact" between both nations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman echoed Beijing, saying: "Such constructive statements impress us far more than the confrontational rhetoric that we have heard up to now."

Tillerson's remarks were made following UN political chief Jeffrey Feltman's return from his visit in Pyongyang.

According to Feltman, North Korean officials felt it was "important to prevent war".