Negotiating with North Korea a waste of time – Trump

US President Donald Trump warned Sunday that negotiating with North Korea over its nuclear program would be a waste of time, after it emerged that Washington has channels of contact with Pyongyang.

Only hours after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson revealed that US officials are in exploratory contact with their North Korean counterparts, Trump appeared to undercut his top diplomat by declaring on Twitter that any talks would be futile.

“I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man,” Trump said, using the insulting nickname he has tried to pin on North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. “Save your energy Rex, we’ll do what has to be done!”

Speaking on Saturday after talks with China’s President Xi Jinping in Beijing, Tillerson said that US officials have open channels of communication with North Korea despite an escalating war of words between their respective leaders.

Asked how he could know whether the North would even contemplate coming to the table to negotiate away its growing nuclear arsenal, Tillerson told reporters in Beijing: “We are probing, so stay tuned.”

– AFP