US welcomes North Korea’s ‘restraint’ on nuclear programme

Washignton, Aug 23 (IANS) US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday welcomed "some level of restraint" showed by North Korea with its nuclear programme, seeing a possible pathway to a future talk between Washington and Pyongyang.

"We have had no missile launches or provocative acts from the part of North Korea since the unanimous adoption of the UN Security Council resolution," Xinhua quoted Tillerson as saying.

The United Nations Security Council unanimously passed a resolution imposing new sanctions on North Korea for its continued intercontinental ballistic missile testing on August 5.

Tillerson said he was pleased to see Pyongyang "has certainly demonstrated some level of restraint that we have not seen in the past."

"We hope that it is the beginning of the signal that we are looking for -- that they are ready to restrain their level of tensions, they're ready to restrain their provocative acts," said the US top diplomat.

"Perhaps we are seeing our pathway to some time in the near future having some dialogue," but "need to see more on their part," Tillerson added.

Tillerson's remarks came amid an ongoing joint military drill held by the US and South Korea.

The two-week-long war games mobilised about 17,500 US soldiers and some 50,000 South Korean troops.

Pyongyang said on Monday the US-South Korean joint military drill had plunged the Korean Peninsula into a critical phase.