Tillerson: US Government Talks Directly With NKorea

The U.S. government is communicating with North Korea to see whether it’s willing to negotiate over its nuclear program, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said, the most explicit public acknowledgment yet of direct contact between the countries over the issue.

"We can talk to them, we do talk to them," Tillerson said Saturday at a briefing in Beijing. Previously the countries have generally communicated through other governments or former officials.

North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3, and has launched more than a dozen missiles this year as Kim Jong Un’s regime seeks the capability to hit the continental U.S. with an atomic weapon. The United Nations has imposed stringent sanctions on North Korea for its weapons tests, and U.S. President Donald Trump has said all options -- including military -- are on the table to stop Kim.

A war of words has escalated between the two leaders in recent weeks, with Trump labeling Kim “Rocket Man” and telling the UN that the U.S. would “totally destroy” North Korea if it attacks. Kim responded by calling Trump a “dotard” and warning of the "highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history.”

"We can talk to them, we do talk to them directly, through our own channels," Tillerson said. "We have lines of communication to Pyongyang -- were not in a dark situation, a blackout."

The most important thing to do now is to ease the rhetoric and tension on the peninsula because the situation "is a bit overheated right now," he said.