Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State, stated in a Sunday
interview that the Trump administration is going to continuously pursue diplomacy
with Pyongyang ‘until that first bomb drops.’
Mr. Tillerson didn’t specify whether North Korea or
the U.S. would need to pull the trigger. Rex stated to CNN’s “State of the
Union” that he has a desire that the issue be ‘diplomatically solved.’
According to Tillerson, ‘He isn’t (Trump) seeking to
go to war, he made it clear to continue diplomatic efforts… until that first
bomb drops.’
The statement comes in spite of Trump's tweets a few
weeks ago that his chief envoy was ‘wasting time’ attempting negotiations with
"Little Rocket Man," the nickname Trump gave to Kim Jong Un.
Recent mixed messages from the tip-top of the United
States government raised concerns regarding the possibility for miscalculation
amidst the increasingly bellicose word exchange by Trump and the leader of
North Korea.
Tillerson acknowledged within a recent visit to
Beijing that Trump’s administration was opening direct communication channels
with NK and probing the North's willingness to discuss things. He offered no
elaboration about the channels or substance of discussions.
Trump, soon afterward, got on Twitter to say he’d told
‘our Secretary of State, that he’s wasting time attempting negotiations with
Little Rocket Man ... Save all of your energy Rex, we will do what must be
done!’ The U.S. President gave no further explanation, yet said all military
choices are on the table for handling North Korea's missile and nuclear
programs.
Analysts speculated about whether Trump and his
leading diplomat were playing ‘bad cop, good cop’ with NK, and how China may
interpret the puzzling signals from Washington. Beijing includes the North's
primary trading partner, and the United States is counting on them to enforce
United Nations sanctions.
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