Accessibility links

Breaking News
USA

Mattis: Pentagon 'Fully' Supports State Department on North Korea


U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis testifies before a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Oct. 3, 2017.
U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis testifies before a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Oct. 3, 2017.

The Pentagon "supports fully" U.S. State Department efforts to find a diplomatic solution with North Korea, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday.

Mattis, however, added that the actions of the State Department were not necessarily contradictory to President Donald Trump's comments that diplomatic talks with Pyongyang would be a waste of time.

“All we’re doing is probing - we’re not talking with them – consistent with the president’s dismay about not talking with them before the time is right," Mattis said, testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee. “So I do not see the divergence as strongly as some have interpreted it,”

On Saturday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson acknowledged the United States has direct diplomatic channels through which to try to negotiate with Pyongyang about North Korea’s continued nuclear and ballistic missile tests.

President Trump appeared to undercut his top diplomat the following day, saying Tillerson is "wasting his time" trying to negotiate with North Korea's leader.

In one of a series of tweets the president said, "Save your energy Rex, we'll do what has to be done!"


Despite Trump's remarks, the White House said Monday that the president still has confidence in Tillerson.

  • 16x9 Image

    VOA News

    The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.

XS
SM
MD
LG