Tillerson Suggests North Korea May Soon Be Ready for Talks<br />But I want to acknowledge the steps they’ve taken so far.”<br />As for the stick, the Trump administration announced new sanctions against China<br />and Russia on Tuesday as part of its campaign to pressure North Korea to stop its development of nuclear weapons and missiles.<br />At that time, he said that negotiations could “only be achieved by denuclearizing, giving up their weapons of mass destruction,” and<br />that “only then will we be prepared to engage them in talks.”<br />In recent months, he has suggested that Pyongyang only had to demonstrate<br />that it was serious about a new path before talks could begin, suggesting that a significant pause in the country’s provocative activities would be enough.<br />WASHINGTON — In some of the most conciliatory remarks to North Korea made by the Trump administration, Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson<br />complimented the government in Pyongyang for going more than two weeks without shooting any missiles or blowing up any nuclear bombs.<br />The two moves are part of the Trump administration’s dual-track strategy for taming the nuclear threat from North Korea — ratcheting<br />up economic pressure on the government through sanctions while simultaneously offering a diplomatic pathway to peace.<br />“It is unacceptable for individuals and companies in China, Russia<br />and elsewhere to enable North Korea to generate income used to develop weapons of mass destruction and destabilize the region,” Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, said in a statement on Tuesday
