Tillerson backs nation’s foreign policy record

A door to dialogue remains open for Pyongyang. Until denuclearisation occurs, the pressure will continue Rex Tillerson,

Washington, Dec. 28: The United States’ top diplomat has defended his country’s foreign policy record, saying progress had been made in the last year to rein in North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and to counter the “immense challenges” posed by Russia, China and Iran.

In an opinion piece in the New York Times, secretary of state Rex Tillerson said on Wednesday some 90 per cent of Pyongyang’s export earnings had been cut off by a series of international sanctions after the Trump administration “abandoned the failed policy of strategic patience”.

Tensions have escalated dramatically on the Korean peninsula this year after the isolated but nuclear- armed regime staged a series of atomic and intercontinental ballistic missile ( ICBM) tests — and as US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim JongUn traded personal insults.

Washington wants North Korea to abandon its nuclear programme and has spearheaded three rounds of UN sanctions against the isolated regime, restricting crucial

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US Secy of state

exports of coal, iron, seafood and textiles from the cash- starved state.

Pyongyang has hit out at those sanctions, calling the latest round “an act of war”, and has vowed to never give up its nuclear programme. In his piece Mr Tillerson said “a door to dialogue remains open” for Pyongyang but warned “until denuclearisation occurs, the pressure will continue”. At the same time he called on China — Pyongyang’s only major ally — to “do more” to pressure North Korea.