Trump says Tillerson is 'wasting his time' with North Korean negotiation efforts

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced on Saturday that the White House had been in direct contact with North Korean officials to discuss the rogue nation's nuclear programme.

After meeting with Chinese officials in Beijing on Saturday afternoon, Tillerson doubled down on previous comments, saying the US would never accept a nuclear-armed North Korea.

"We are probing, so stay tuned," he said. "We can talk to them, we do talk to them directly, through our own channels," noting the US had "a couple, three channels open to Pyongyang."

Donald Trump, who had recently taken to referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as "Rocket Man", said the time for talk had passed and the Tillerson was "wasting his time trying to negotiate" with Pyongyang.

...Save your energy Rex, we'll do what has to be done!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2017

Tillerson said it was paramount that both the President and Kim Jong-un cut back on their current line of rhetoric as part of an effort to de-escalate the tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

"The whole situation is a bit overheated right now," he said. "Everyone would like for it to calm down. Obviously, it would help for North Korea to stop firing off missiles. That would calm things down a lot."

"You'd be foolish to say you're going to sit down and so, OK, done, nuclear weapons gone," Tillerson said of North Korea, which had gone as far as to enshrine its nuclear doctrine into its constitution.

"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, North Korean officials have shown no indication that they are interested in or are ready for talks regarding denuclearization," said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert.