North Korea and US 'in direct contact', says Tillerson

The US is in "direct contact" with North Korea, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said.

The US is in "direct contact" with North Korea, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said.

Mr Tillerson said Washington was "probing" the possibility of talks with Pyongyang, "so stay tuned".

"We have lines of communications to Pyongyang," he said during a trip to China. "We're not in a dark situation."

North Korea and the US have engaged in heated rhetoric in recent months but it was not previously known they had lines of communication.

• Inside the world's most secretive country
• Where is the war of words heading?
  
  The US wants North Korea to halt its weapons programme, which has seen it perform repeated missile tests and, on 3 September, the test of a miniaturised hydrogen bomb which could be loaded on to a long-range missile, which Pyongyang said was successful.
  
  But attempts at dialogue seem to be at odds with President Donald Trump's own attitude to the issue. Just last month, he said "talking is not the answer"Mr Trump has previously threatened to annihilate North Korea, saying the country's leader, Kim Jong-un, "is on a suicide mission". Mr Kim then vowed to "tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire".
  North Korea continued the rhetoric on Saturday, releasing a statement calling Mr Trump an "old psychopath" bent on the "suicidal act of inviting a nuclear disaster that will reduce America to a sea of flames".
  The UN has brought in sanctions against North Korea in an attempt to force the secretive state to stop its weapons programme., which has seen it perform repeated missile tests and, on 3 September, the test of a miniaturised hydrogen bomb which could be loaded on to a long-range missile, which Pyongyang said was successful.
  But attempts at dialogue seem to be at odds with President Donald Trump's own attitude to the issue. Just last month, he said "talking is not the answer".Mr Trump has previously threatened to annihilate North Korea, saying the country's leader, Kim Jong-un, "is on a suicide mission". Mr Kim then vowed to "tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire".
  North Korea continued the rhetoric on Saturday, releasing a statement calling Mr Trump an "old psychopath" bent on the "suicidal act of inviting a nuclear disaster that will reduce America to a sea of flames".
  The UN has brought in sanctions against North Korea in an attempt to force the secretive state to stop its weapons programme.