Sanctions over North Korea's nuclear program are taking a toll on Kim Jong-Un's regime, but Washington still hopes to find a diplomatic solution to the long-simmering crisis, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Monday.
Tillerson's comments came after President Donald Trump announced that North Korea was being restored to the US blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism.
"We still hope for diplomacy," Tillerson told a White House press conference. "This is all part of continuing to turn this pressure up," he said, noting that evidence showed the measures were having a "significant effect" on Pyongyang.
Tillerson said that the move to designate North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism will help dissuade third parties from supporting Pyongyang.
"The practical effect of it is ... it may though disrupt, and dissuade some third parties from undertaking certain activities with North Korea, as it does impose prohibition on a number of other activities that may not be covered by existing sanctions," Tillerson told a White House briefing.