The White House has said that now is not the time for talks with North Korea, a day after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson offered unconditional dialogue.
 
Tillerson said Tuesday that Washington is ready to begin talks with the North "without precondition" during a forum.
 
However, National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton told Reuters on Wednesday that “clearly right now is not the time” for talks, following North Korea’s test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile last month.
 
The spokesman said that any negotiations with North Korea must wait until the regime fundamentally improves its behavior. 
 
Shortly after Tillerson's remarks, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders also said in a statement that U.S. President Donald Trump's outlook on North Korea remains unchanged. She said that North Korea is acting in an unsafe way not only toward Japan, China and South Korea, but the entire world.
 
Meanwhile, Tillerson disclosed at the forum that the U.S. and China discussed responses to sudden changes in North Korea. 
 
The U.S secretary said that should the North Korean regime collapse, the most important thing for the U.S. would be to secure the North's nuclear weapons.
 
Tillerson said he had promised China that even if the U.S. should send its military north of the 38th parallel dividing the two Koreas to secure the North's nuclear weapons, it would return south of the truce line without fail.
 
He also said that China is preparing for an influx of North Korean refugees in the event that the North Korean regime collapses.

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