Trump: North Korean talks a waste of time

UNITED STATES: A day after the US Secretary of State revealed Washington was in direct communication with Pyongyang over North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, President Donald Trump said he had told his most senior diplomat not to waste his time on negotiations.

The president made his statement on Twitter yesterday, hinting once again that he favours a military response to North Korean aggression.

‘‘I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man,’’ Trump wrote from his New Jersey golf club, using his nickname for Kim Jong Un. ‘‘Save your energy Rex, we’ll do what has to be done!’’

Trump has repeatedly talked up the prospect of an armed confrontation as Kim’s regime continues to test its latest generation of nuclear bombs and the intercontinental ballistic missiles that could one day deliver them to the American mainland.

In August he said further North Korean threats would be ‘‘met with fire and fury like the world has never seen’’, and has frequently said that all options remain available to him.

Kim has been happy to play along. Last month he dismissed Trump as a ‘‘mentally deranged US dotard’’ after his country conducted its sixth nuclear test.

Meanwhile, Tillerson has played good cop, talking up the possibility of a diplomatic solution and the importance of sanctions.

He said that the US had ‘‘a couple of, three channels open to Pyongyang’’.

Analysts believe that, for all the sabre rattling on both sides, talks are the only possible outcome.

– Telegraph Group