ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday that the U.S. is receiving “potentially positive signals” from North Korea, but that the two countries are still "a long way" from direct negotiations about Pyongyang's nuclear program. Speaking alongside Ethiopia's foreign minister during a press conference in Addis Ababa, Tillerson said: “I think as President Trump has indicated, there are potentially positive signals coming from North Korea by way of their intra-Korean dialogue.”

"In terms of direct talks with the United States... we're a long way from negotiations," said Tillerson, who cautioned that the first step should be "talks about talks." “In terms of direct talks… we’re a long way from negotiations, we just need to be very clear-eyed and realistic about it,” Tillerson had said in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on Thursday. The North is open to "frank" talks with the United States on denuclearisation and would suspend missile and nuclear tests while dialogue was under way, the South's national security adviser Chung Eui-yong said after returning from a meeting in Pyongyang with Kim.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says "potentially positive signals" come from North Korea, but that the two countries are "still a long way" from direct negotiations.