State Department: US policy on DPRK 'has not changed'

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The US State Department said Wednesday that its policy on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) remains unchanged and it is not the right time to start dialogue with Pyongyang, following remarks by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that Washington is ready to talk without prior conditions.

"The secretary was not creating a new policy, our policy remains exactly the same as it was," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

"We remain open to dialogue when North Korea (the DPRK) is willing to conduct a credible dialogue on the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," she said, adding "clearly the time is not right now" and that the State Department is "on the same page" as the White House on the issue.

Tillerson said on Tuesday that the US is ready to have the first meeting with the DPRK without precondition, which was interpreted as a softening of the US stance on Pyongyang.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson delivers remarks on the US-Korea relationship during a forum at the Atlantic Council in Washington, US December 12, 2017. /Reuters Photo

"Can we at least sit down and see each other face to face, and then we can begin to lay out a map, a roadmap, of what we might be willing to work towards?" Tillerson said at the 2017 Atlantic Council-Korea Foundation Forum.

"It's not realistic to say we're only going to talk if you come to the table ready to give up your program," he added, referring to Pyongyang's devotion to missile and nuclear programs.

The remarks came two weeks after the DPRK successfully fired an intercontinental ballistic missile, which led to the US listing Pyongyang as a "state sponsor of terrorism" and imposing new round of sanctions on the country.

Photo provided by Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on November 30, 2017 shows the test-firing of an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile on November 29, 2017. /Xinhua Photo‍

It was not the first time that White House has contradicted with Tillerson on policy towards the DPRK.

Two months ago when Tillerson visited China and raised the idea to start a dialogue with Pyongyang, Trump rebuked in a tweet saying "Save your energy Rex."

The US insisted that the DPRK's nuclear disarmament is the precondition for negotiations.

But the DPRK leader Kim Jong-un said scientists and workers would continue manufacturing “more latest weapons and equipment” to “bolster up the nuclear force in quality and quantity,” according to its state news agency.