Earlier this week North Korea launched a series of short range ballistic missiles into the waters between their southern neighbours and Japan in a defiant show of force.
The warmongering military bravado of Kim Jong-un’s missile fire came just days after Rex Tillerson praised North Korea’s “restraint” in the face of UN sanctions.
Now Trump’s top diplomat has yet again called for Pyongyang to come to the negotiating table as World War 3 tensions on the peninsula reach fever pitch.
Mr Tillerson said: “The firing of any ballistic missile is a violation of UN Security Council resolutions.
“We do view it as a provocative act against the United States and our allies.
“Having said that, we’re going to continue our peaceful pressure campaign, as I have described it, working with allies and working with China as well to see if we can bring the regime in Pyongyang to the negotiating table with a view to begin a dialogue on a different future for Korean Peninsula and for North Korea.”
Mr Tillerson’s praise for the Kim regime last week led US President Donald Trump to claim the tiny tyrant was “starting to respect” the US.
But the Secretary of state has denied claims they were speaking too soon.
He added: “We continue to want the Kim regime to understand there is a different path he can choose.
“There is also a unified international voice echoing our messages that no one wants to see a nuclear Korean Peninsula.
“We hope for the opportunity to engage with them as to how we might achieve that.”
The three missiles fired on Saturday are believed to be in response to military drills – also known as war games – being carried out by US and South Korean troops on the peninsula.
Along with the missile launch, the Kim regime engaged in their own war games in a series of strikes against targets modelled after South Korean islands.
The KCNA news agency quoted Kim as telling the army that it “should think of mercilessly wiping out the enemy with arms only and occupying Seoul at one go and the southern half of Korea”.