U.S. in contact with North Korea

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson won’t elaborate.

BEIJING — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson acknowledged Saturday that the United States is maintaining direct channels of communications with North Korea even as tensions rise over the North’s nuclear and missile programs and the countries’ leaders spar through bellicose name-calling.

Tillerson said the U.S. was probing North Korea’s willingness to talk, and called for a calming of the situation on the Korean Peninsula, adding it was incumbent on the North to halt the missile launches.

“We have lines of communication to Pyongyang. We’re not in a dark situation, a blackout,” Tillerson told reporters during a visit to China. “We have a couple three channels open to Pyongyang. We can talk to them, we do talk to them.”

No elaboration about those channels or the substance of any discussions came from Tillerson, who met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other top officials in Beijing.

The acknowledgment suggests a potential de-escalation after months of bellicose rhetoric on both sides, as well as repeated, provocative intercontinental ballistic missile tests and a nuclear test by North Korea. President Donald Trump has threatened to rain “fire and fury” on North Korea and to destroy the country of 25 million people. In September, the isolated state’s leader Kim Jong Un called Trump a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard,” and Trump has taken to calling him “Little Rocket Man.”

North Korea has not dialed back its war of words; on Saturday, its state media released a statement accusing Trump of working toward a “suicidal act of inviting a nuclear disaster that will reduce America to a sea of flames.”

Tillerson also said it was essential “to calm things down” between North Korea and the United States and its allies. Asked if that pertained to Trump as well, Tillerson told reporters, “I think the whole situation is a bit overheated right now.”

While Tillerson affirmed that the U.S. would not recognize North Korea as a nuclear power, he also said the Trump administration had no intention of ousting Kim. “Despite assurances that the United States is not interested in promoting the collapse of the current regime, pursuing regime change, accelerating reunification of the peninsula or mobilizing forces, North Korean officials have shown no indication that they are interested in or are ready for talks regarding denuclearization,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.

Since Trump took office in January, the U.S. has restored a diplomatic backchannel between the State Department and North Korea’s mission at the United Nations. That’s traditionally been a way for the two sides to communicate because they lack formal diplomatic ties.

The main aim of the initial contacts was to seek the freedom of several American citizens imprisoned in North Korea, although U.S. officials have said that there were broader discussions about U.S. North Korean relations. Those contacts, however, have failed to reduce the deep mistrust between the adversaries and it's unclear to what extent they have endured the current spike in tensions. . Tillerson was in China in part to prepare for Trump’s trip in November. The president also will visit Japan and South Korea, the two allies most directly affected by North Korea’s aggressions, as well as Vietnam and the Philippines.

China’s Ministry of Commerce said Thursday that it would require North Korean businesses and joint ventures in China to close, in keeping with the latest round of United Nations sanctions. North Korea operates restaurants in several Chinese cities, and its laborers work in factories across the country. Much of their income goes directly to the North Korean government.

The commerce agency announced last week that it would cut off natural gas and textile exports immediately, and limit annual petroleum exports starting on Jan. 1. Officials said the measures were in accordance with U.N. sanctions intended to thwart North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

The Trump administration has welcomed the recent crackdowns by China, which is Pyongyang’s main ally and economic patron.

ANDY WONG/GETTY-AFP Secretary of State Rex Tillerson meets with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday.