TOKYO — At a time of multiplying tensions in Asia, Rex Tillerson, the U.S. secretary of state, began his first major foreign trip in Japan and said on Thursday that the United States needed a “different approach” to North Korea’s escalating nuclear threat, though he declined to give specifics.
Speaking to reporters in Tokyo after talks with Japan’s foreign minister, Fumio Kishida, Tillerson said that “the diplomatic and other efforts of the past 20 years to bring North Korea to a point of denuclearization have failed,” noting that during those 20 years, the United States had provided $1.35 billion in assistance to North Korea to encourage it to abandon its nuclear program.
“Part of the purpose of my visit to the region is to exchange views on a new approach,” Tillerson added, saying he would highlight the issue in Seoul and Beijing, the next stops on his trip.
On the eve of President Donald Trump sending a federal budget to Congress that proposes a 29 percent cut in the State Department’s budget, Tillerson, who took questions only from reporters who had been preselected by one of his press advisers, said he would take on the challenge of the cutbacks “willingly.”
“The level of spending that the State Department has been undertaking, particularly in the past year, is simply not sustainable,” Tillerson said, explaining that current spending reflected the “level of conflicts that the U.S. has been engaged in around the world as well as disaster assistance.”
He said the department would undergo a review of programs and would “be much more effective, much more efficient, and be able to do a lot with fewer dollars.”
The most pressing issue for the United States and its allies in Asia is the advancing threat from North Korea, which has launched ballistic missiles twice in three weeks and has said that it is close to testing a missile that could reach the United States.
In prepared remarks, Tillerson said he hoped to deepen cooperation among the United States, Japan and South Korea “in the face of North Korea’s dangerous and unlawful nuclear and ballistic missile programs.”
Policymakers and U.S. reporters were eager to hear Tillerson speak, given that in his more than 50 days in office he had not expanded on the Trump administration’s foreign policy. Critics have questioned how much influence he has with the president, as he has been absent from meetings with world leaders at the White House.
The secretary’s trip, which will also include stops in Seoul and Beijing, comes as the region is grappling not only with the North Korean threat, but also with increased tensions between China and South Korea, where the United States is deploying a missile defense system that China vigorously opposes.
Analysts were hoping to use Tillerson’s remarks as guidance on the options that the United States might consider in responding to the nuclear threat from North Korea. U.S. officials are reviewing options that could include a pre-emptive military strike and renewed talks with North Korea.
But when asked for details of a new approach, he did not answer.
In his prepared remarks, Tillerson took a markedly different tone than the secretary of defense, Jim Mattis, who said on a visit to Seoul in February that the use of nuclear weapons by North Korea would be met with an “overwhelming” response.
Tillerson said “North Korea and its people need not fear the United States or their neighbors in the region who seek only to live in peace with North Korea.” He added, “With this in mind the United States calls on North Korea to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile program and refrain from any further provocations.”
In Japan, government officials are eager to build a relationship with Tillerson, who is relatively inexperienced in matters pertaining to Asia and who currently has a depleted staff at the State Department to advise him on the region.
Japan has been somewhat reassured after Mattis visited Tokyo and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Trump in Washington and Mar-a-Lago in Florida, with each U.S. official stating that the United States would support its allies. Tillerson again reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to the defense of Japan.
Still, given that Trump suggested during the campaign that he might pull back from U.S. security commitments to allies in Asia, both Japan and South Korea are likely to remain anxious about U.S. resolve.