
U.S. President Donald Trump vowed on Sunday that he would not fail as his predecessors did in trying to stop North Korea’s nuclear program.
“Being nice to Rocket Man hasn't worked in 25 years, why would it work now? Clinton failed, Bush failed, and Obama failed. I won't fail,” Trump tweeted.
His tweet came several hours after an earlier series of tweets in which he turned to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and said he had advised him not to waste time talking to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man,” he wrote, adding, “Save your energy Rex, we'll do what has to be done!”
Tillerson acknowledged on Saturday that the United States was directly communicating with North Korea on its nuclear and missile programs.
"We are probing so stay tuned," Tillerson told a group of reporters in Beijing, adding, "We ask: 'Would you like to talk?' We have lines of communications to Pyongyang. We're not in a dark situation, a blackout."
"We haven't even gotten that far yet," he acknowledged. The State Department said later there were no signs Pyongyang was interested in talks.
"North Korean officials have shown no indication that they are interested in or are ready for talks regarding denuclearization," department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.