North Korea continues to spark fears of World War 3 as Kim Jong-un’s nuclear programme improves every day.
Former US Ambassador to Russia Thomas Pickering said: “North Korea is a particularly difficult problem.”
Appearing in an interview with CNN International, Mr Pickering added: “There are sort of three possible outcomes here.
“One is war, the other is chaos and I think the people in the region, particularly China, don’t want either of those.
“The third is a negotiated solution. I’m not sure the Russians would be the greatest allies in getting us in the direction we want to go which is a denuclearised peninsula.
“A very hard, very long-term, very difficult subject. But I do think that Secretary Tillerson has been right in saying it’s time for us to open channels to the North Koreans to begin to take this military pressure and the sanctions pressure in the direction we want to see it go at various steps that are going to lead towards denuclearisation without conflict.”
Mr Pickering added: “The US public is not interested, I think, in another war, particularly in Asia. But that’s what’s happening around here.
“The drums are beating and if we don’t move that particular pressure into the direction we want to go we may well get those first two alternatives and I don’t think at this stage the Russians want that either.
“So they’re jumping in to see what they can do to prevent chaos on their border.”
In an attempt to stop the rogue nation, the United Nations Security Council imposed tough new sanctions on North Korea after its continued missile testing.
The resolution seeks to ban nearly 90 percent of refined petroleum product exports to North Korea.
Following the UN vote, Donald Trump wrote on Twitter: “The United Nations Security Council just voted 15-0 in favour of additional Sanctions on North Korea. The World wants Peace, not Death!”