President Donald Trump on Sunday virtually snubbed his own Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for exploring the possibility of a diplomatic option with North Korea over the nuclear issue, telling him bluntly that he is “wasting his time” and that the United States “will do what has to be done”.
A day after Tillerson disclosed in Beijing that the US was in direct contact with North Korea to probe if it would be open to the idea of talks, Trump appeared to throw cold water on his efforts, tweeting: “I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with little Rocket Man.”
Trump, who has lately been deriding North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un as “Rocket Man on a suicide mission” and has often spoken of futility of negotiations with Pyongyang, went on to tell Tillerson: “Save your energy Rex, we’ll do what has to be done!”
Tillerson had on Saturday raised hopes for a possible dialogue with the reclusive regime, speaking of direct lines of communication with North Korea in a bid to “calm things down” after months of escalating rhetoric over Pyongyang’s reckless nuclear and missile push.
“We’re probing, so stay tuned,” Tillerson had told the US media in Beijing, adding: “We ask, ‘Would you like to talkIJ’ We have lines of communications to Pyongyang - we’re not in a dark situation, a blackout. We have a couple, three channels open to Pyongyang.
When his observation about calming things down prompted the query if his word of caution would apply to President Trump as well since he has issued dire warnings against North Korea, Tillerson skirted round the issue, saying: “I think everyone would like for it to calm down.” There was no immediate word from Tillerson or the State Department on Trump’s piece of advice to the Secretary of State on the question of holding talks with the North Koreans.
But Richard Haass, a former senior State Department official and currently president of the Council on Foreign Relations, criticised Trump’s stance, tweeting: “Diplomacy not a favour we dispense but a critical national security tool for ourselves....”