Tillerson says U.S. willing to talk to North Korea without pre-condition

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Tuesday that the United States was willing to begin direct talks with North Korea without pre-conditions, appearing to back away from U.S. demands that Pyongyang first accept that any negotiations would have to be based on North Korean disarmament.

”Let’s just meet,“ Tillerson said in a speech to a Washington think tank, offering a new diplomatic opening amid heightened tensions over North Korea’s weapons advances. ”We can talk about the weather if you want. We can talk about whether it’s going to be a square table or a round table.

“Then we can begin to lay out a map, a road map, of what we might be willing to work towards,” Tillerson said, suggesting that any initial contacts would be about setting the ground rules for formal negotiations.