Image copyright Reuters Image caption Rex Tillerson arrives at the Atlantic Council policy forum to discuss North Korea 
 
 The US is "ready to talk any time" with North Korea without preconditions, says Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. 
 
 His statement appeared to shift the US position away from previous demands that North Korea must disarm before any talks can be held. 
 
 But hours later the White House said President Donald Trump's views on North Korea "had not changed". 
 
 North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons technology has led to heavy US-led sanctions against the regime. 
 
 Separately, the UN's political chief Jeffrey Feltman, who recently visited Pyongyang, told reporters that North Korean officials felt it was "important to prevent war". 
 
 China and Russia both welcomed Mr Tillerson's comments. The Chinese foreign ministry hoped there would now be "meaningful steps towards dialogue and contact" between the US and the North. 
 
 Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said: "Such constructive statements impress us far more than the confrontational rhetoric that we have heard up to now." 
 
 Diplomatic relations between the US and North Korea have been strained by recent North Korean nuclear and missile tests, and by a war of words between Mr Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un. 
 
 Speaking at the Atlantic Council policy forum on Tuesday, Mr Tillerson said the US "simply cannot accept a nuclear armed North Korea". 
 
 Appearing to soften the US stance towards potential future talks, he said: "Let's just meet and let's talk about the weather if you want and talk about whether it's going to be a square table or a round table if that's what you're excited about. 
 
 "Then we can begin to lay out a map, a road map, of what we might be willing to work towards." 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption How could war with North Korea unfold? 
 
 But he insisted that there needed to be a "period of quiet" first, without any nuclear or missile tests. 
 
 He added that economic and diplomatic sanctions would continue until "the first bomb drops", and Mr Trump still wanted China - Pyongyang's main economic ally - to cut off oil supplies to North Korea. 
 
 Mr Tillerson also said China had made contingency plans to accommodate North Korean refugees in the event of a conflict, a major concern for China. 
 
 Several hours after his comments, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders released a statement to reporters saying Mr Trump's views "have not changed". 
 
 "North Korea is acting in an unsafe way not only toward Japan, China, and South Korea, but the entire world. North Korea's actions are not good for anyone and certainly not good for North Korea." 
 
 On Wednesday, North Korean state media said Kim Jong-un had vowed his country would become "the strongest nuclear power and military power in the world". 
 
 Speaking at a munitions industry conference, he cited North Korea's recent launch of intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-15 as a "great historic victory". 
 
 'Left the door ajar' 
 
 The UN's Jeffrey Feltman said that while senior North Korean officials did not offer any commitments, they had agreed that discussions should continue. 
 
 "They agreed that it was important to prevent war," he said, in his first briefing since his four-day trip last week. 
 
 "We've left the door ajar and I fervently hope the door to a negotiated solution will now be opened wide." 

 Tillerson Wants To Start Talks With North Korea With No Conditions 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Susan Walsh/AP Susan Walsh/AP 
 
 Updated at 7:55 p.m. ET 
 
 Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Tuesday the U.S. would be willing to enter negotiations with North Korea without requiring that it agree beforehand to give up its nuclear weapons program. The willingness to engage in talks without that understanding is a significant change in the U.S. approach. 
 
 "It's not realistic to say we are only going to talk if you come to the table ready to give up your program," Tillerson said in an address to the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank. "They have too much invested in it, and [President Trump] is very realistic about that as well." 
 
 White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders later released a statement saying, "The President's views on North Korea have not changed. North Korea is acting in an unsafe way not only toward Japan, China, and South Korea, but the entire world. North Korea's actions are not good for anyone and certainly not good for North Korea." 
 
 Tillerson said the U.S. is ready to talk whenever North Korea is. "We are ready to have the first meeting without precondition. Let's just meet. We can talk about the weather if you want. We can talk about whether it's going to be a square table if that's what you are excited about," Tillerson said. 
 
 "It's really about how do you begin the process of engagement. Because we are dealing with a North Korean leader that no one has ever engaged with. He's clearly not like his father," said Tillerson. "And we don't know what it will be like to engage with him." 
 
 It will also be tough to talk, Tillerson says, if North Korea continues to fire off missiles or test nuclear devices. 
 
 The idea of talks about talks is something Suzanne Dimaggio supports. A senior fellow at a think tank called New America, Dimaggio has been part of so-called track two diplomacy with North Korea and says the Trump administration has been sending mixed signals with the president once tweeting that Tillerson is wasting his time. 
 
 "Clearly there's a need for this adminsitration to speak with one voice and stop this contradictory signaling," she says. "It is high time to move from a dithering approach and have a real strategy and empower our diplomats to carry that strategy out." 
 
 Tillerson plans to go later this week to the United Nations for a high-level Security Council meeting on North Korea. A top U.N. diplomat and former State Department official, Jeffrey Feltman, is just back from Pyongyang, and the U.N. says he is calling for open channels to reduce the risks of conflict.
– Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says the US is ready to talk to North Korea at any time about any subject Pyongyang wants to talk about—without preconditions. "Let's just meet and let's talk about the weather if you want and talk about whether it's going to be a square table or a round table, if that's what you're excited about," Tillerson said in a speech at the Atlantic Council policy forum on Tuesday, per the BBC. "Then we can begin to lay out a map, a road map, of what we might be willing to work towards." But the US has previously demanded that North Korea give up its nuclear weapons before talks begin, and it's not clear whether that policy has officially changed, NPR reports. President Trump's "views on North Korea have not changed," the White House said in a statement after Tillerson's speech. "North Korea's actions are not good for anyone and certainly not good for North Korea." Tillerson said that before talks could begin, there would need to be a "period of quiet" without nuclear or ICBM tests. Reuters reports that United Nations political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman, whose trip to North Korea last week was the first of its kind since 2011, said Tuesday that Pyongyang did not commit to talks, but they "left the door ajar" for future negotiations. (China is believed to be preparing several refugee camps along the border.)