Washington and Pyongyang must back words with actions

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday offered to start direct talks with Pyongyang without preconditions. "Let's just meet," Tillerson said in a speech in Washington, moving away from the stumbling block of the United States' previous demand that Pyongyang must first abandon its nuclear arsenal.

The softening of US position seems to be in response to Pyongyang's expressed desire for direct talks with Washington, which Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last week he had passed on to his US counterpart.

The possibility of talks when the worst-case scenario seemed to be looming ever nearer would certainly be welcome.