State Department: New strategy needed to stop N. Korea nuke program

WASHINGTON — Acknowledging that U.S. efforts to curtail North Korea’s nuclear ambitions have failed, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will use a trip to Asia next week to look at new ways of approaching a problem that has vexed American presidents since Bill Clinton.

“All of the efforts we have taken thus far to attempt to persuade North Korea to engage in meaningful negotiations have fallen short, to be honest,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters in Washington Wednesday. “So we need to look at new ways to convince them, to persuade them, that it’s in their interests.”

Toner’s remarks are a rare and frank public admission from the U.S. government that the approach taken toward North Korea in recent years — which became known as “strategic patience” — hasn’t worked and isn’t likely to now. For almost two decades the U.S. has refused to engage in direct talks with North Korea.

Last year, North Korea conducted two nuclear weapons tests and fired 24 ballistic missiles. So far this year, a missile test in February was followed by four ballistic missiles fired this week, which landed inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

Toner spoke days before Tillerson departs for Japan, South Korea and China to meet top leaders. North Korea will be a focus of the talks, which will study “what our options are and new ways to look at resolving the situation,” the spokesman said.

President Donald Trump’s administration is reviewing all possible options in North Korea, even those that aren’t likely to be adopted. According to The Wall Street Journal, the administration is weighing everything from the use of military force to recognizing North Korea as a nuclear state.