Washington: The US does not seek a regime change in North Korea and wants to work with China to prevent the reclusive country from acquiring nuclear weapons, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said.
Tillerson's remarks came after US President Donald Trump recently said China's efforts to rein in North Korea had "not worked" out even as he appreciated Beijing for its attempts to pursue its closest ally to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
"We have reaffirmed our position towards North Korea, that what we are doing, we do not seek a regime change; we do not seek the collapse of the regime; we do not seek an accelerated reunification of the peninsula; we do not seek an excuse to send our military north of the 38th parallel," Tillerson told reporters at the State Department on Tuesday.
"We are trying to convey to the North Koreans we are not your enemy, we are not your threat, but you are presenting an unacceptable threat to us, and we have to respond," he said.
Tillerson said he hoped that at some point the North Koreans will begin to understand that the US would like to sit and have a dialogue with them about their future that will give them the security they seek and the future economic prosperity for North Korea.
"This is going to be a continued effort to put ever greater pressure on the North Korean regime because our other options, obviously, are not particularly attractive," he said.
Identifying North Korea as one of the first threats encountered by the Trump administration, Tillerson said the threat has materialised in the ways they expected it would.
"That's why early on we identified it as a very urgent matter, and the North Koreans have certainly proven the urgency of that to us," he said.
"We initiated a sustained and continued intensified campaign on what I like to call peaceful pressure, because the options available to us, I think as all of you well understand, are limited, and particularly if we think we are operating under a short period of time," he said.
"So we felt the appropriate thing to do first was to seek peaceful pressure on the regime in North Korea to have them develop a willingness to sit and talk with us and others but with an understanding that a condition of those talks is there is no future where North Korea holds nuclear weapons or the ability to deliver those nuclear weapons to anyone in the
region much less to the homeland," he said.
In doing so, the Trump Administration has sought to partner with China, he added. China does account for 90 per cent of economic activity with North Korea, Tillerson said, adding that the Chinese have been very clear with the US that they share the same objective of a denuclearised Korean Peninsula.
"They do not see it in their interest for North Korea to have nuclear weapons, just as we do not see it in anyone's interest. China has ways that they can put pressure on and influence the North Korean regime because of this significant economic relationship that no one else has," he said.
"We've been very clear with the Chinese. We certainly don't blame the Chinese for the situation in North Korea. Only the North Koreans are to blame for this situation. But we do believe China has a special and unique relationship because of this significant economic activity to influence the North Korean regime in ways that no one else can," Tillerson said.
"And that's why we continue to call upon them to use that influence with North Korea to create the conditions where we can have a productive dialogue. We don't think having a dialogue where the North Koreans come to the table assuming they're going to maintain their nuclear weapons is productive. So that's really the objective,” he said.
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