Two decades of diplomacy aimed at curbing North Korea’s nuclear ambitions have failed and a new approach is needed, the United States’ top envoy said on Thursday.
During a visit to Japan at the start of an Asian tour, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said China needed to play its part in reining in its errant neighbour. In his first major foray into crisis diplomacy, the new US envoy is looking to reassure key Asian allies that Washington stands with them in the face of the accelerating nuclear and missile threats from North Korea. But he warned that past policies and punishments have had virtually no effect on Pyongyang’s ambitions.
“I think it’s important to recognise that the diplomatic and other efforts of past 20 years to bring North Korea to a point of denuclearisation have failed,” he told a Press conference with Japan’s Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida.