Talks 'without 'preconditions'

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson offered to begin direct talks with North Korea without pre-conditions, backing away from a key US demand that Pyongyang must first accept that giving up its nuclear arsenal would be part of any negotiations.

Tillerson's new diplomatic overture comes nearly two weeks after North Korea said it had successfully tested a breakthrough intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that put the entire United States mainland within range of its nuclear weapons.

"Let's just meet," Tillerson said in a speech to Washington's Atlantic Council think tank on Tuesday.

The White House later issued an ambiguous statement that left unclear whether President Donald Trump - who has said Tillerson was wasting his time pursuing dialogue with North Korea - had given his approval for the speech.

"The president's views on North Korea have not changed," the White House said.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China welcomed all efforts to ease tension and promote dialogue to resolve the problem, reported Reuters.

China hopes the United States and North Korea can meet each other halfway and take meaningful steps on dialogue and contact, he told reporters.

Russia said it welcomed US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's statement that Washington is ready for talks with North Korea without preconditions, calling this a constructive approach, reported AFP.

"We can state that such constructive statements impress us far more than the confrontational rhetoric that we have heard up to now. Undoubtedly this can be welcomed," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

Ahead of Tillerson's speech, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to develop more nuclear weapons while personally decorating scientists and officials who contributed to the development of Pyongyang's most advanced ICBM, state media said yesterday.

While reiterating Washington's long-standing position that it cannot tolerate a nuclear-armed North Korea, Tillerson said US was "ready to talk any time they're ready to talk", but there would first have to be a "period of quiet" without nuclear and missile tests.

United Nations political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman, who visited Pyongyang last week, said senior North Korean officials did not offer any type of commitment to talks, but he believed he left "the door ajar".

"Time will tell what was the impact of our discussions, but I think we have left the door ajar and I fervently hope that the door to a negotiated solution will now be opened wide," Feltman told reporters after briefing the UN Security Council on Tuesday.

Not everyone is ready for talks.

Japan has advocated a strategy of pressuring North Korea through sanctions to give up its nuclear weapons. Tokyo and Washington are in "100 percent" agreement on that stance, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said yesterday, when asked about Tillerson's comments.

A former Japanese diplomat said that, while a diplomatic solution was the "only acceptable solution", now was not the time for talks.

"We have to see the effects of sanctions on life in North Korea," the former diplomat, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters.

South Korea continued military exercises with the United States to check military readiness, exercises the North describes as preparation for war. The South's army yesterday said separately it conducted a successful air-to-air missile firing drill from Apache helicopters.

Tillerson also disclosed the United States had been talking to China about how to secure North Korea's nuclear weapons in the event of a collapse of the government in Pyongyang. He said Beijing had been given assurances that if US forces had to cross into North Korea they would pull back across the border into the South.