Tillerson on North Korea 🇰🇵: Diplomacy will continue 👍 'until the first bomb drops'

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said his diplomatic efforts will continue as long as they possibly can despite the saber-rattling on both sides of the Pacific.

Several weeks ago, Tillerson announced from Beijing that he had direct lines of communication with North Korea and was seeking to cool tensions between North Korea and the United States.

Tensions have ratcheted up between the two nations as North Korea continues to develop and threaten the use of its nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, and Trump has threatened to "totally destroy" the isolated nation.

Asked if Trump's tweets undermined his diplomatic efforts, Tillerson said connections between US and Chinese leaders were close and that the Chinese "are not confused in any way" about US policy toward North Korea.

"The US military action hardens our determination that the US should be tamed with fire and lets us take our hand closer to the 'trigger' for taking the toughest countermeasure," the KCNA report quoted Kim Kwang Hak, a researcher at the Institute for American Studies of the North Korean Foreign Ministry, as saying.

UCJ, UNILORIN.