The United States does not seek to topple the North Korean government and would like dialogue with Pyongyang at some point, but only on the understanding that it can never be a nuclear power, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters at the State Department days after Pyongyang tested its second intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), Tillerson reiterated that Washington sought to persuade North Korea to give up its missile and nuclear weapons programs through peaceful pressure.

&quot;We do not seek a regime change, we do not seek a collapse of the regime, we do not seek an accelerated reunification of the peninsula, we do not seek an excuse to send our military north of the 38th Parallel,&quot; Tillerson said.

&quot;We are not your enemy ... but you are presenting an unacceptable threat to us, and we have to respond. And we hope that at some point they will begin to understand that and we would like to sit and have a dialogue with them.&quot;

However, &quot;a condition of those talks is there is no future where North Korea holds nuclear weapons or the ability to deliver those nuclear weapons to anyone in the region, much less the (U.S.) homeland,&quot; he said.

North Korea has vowed to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the United States and U.S. officials said the latest test had shown it may now be able to reach most of the country.

Tillerson repeated calls for North Korea&#39;s neighbour and ally China, which has urged a resumption of talks with Pyongyang, to use its influence to create the conditions for &quot;productive dialogue.&quot;

He said other options were &quot;not particularly attractive.&quot;

President Donald Trump&#39;s administration has said all options are on the table in dealing with North Korea, including military ones. However, given the potential for massive casualties from North Korean retaliation in allied South Korea and Japan and among U.S. troops there, it has stressed the need for a diplomatic solution.

Earlier on Tuesday, a leading Republican senator, Lindsey Graham, said Trump had told him he was willing to go to war with North Korea &quot;if they continued to try to hit America with an ICBM.&quot;

&quot;He&#39;s told me that. I believe him. If I were China, I would believe him, too, and do something about it. You can stop North Korea, militarily or diplomatically,&quot; he said on NBC&#39;s &quot;Today Show.&quot;

&quot;There is a military option: To destroy North Korea&#39;s programme and North Korea itself,&quot; Graham said. &quot;I prefer the diplomatic approach. But they will not be allowed to have a missile to hit America with a nuclear weapon on top.&quot;

Asked about Graham&#39;s remarks, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders reiterated that the administration was &quot;keeping all options on the table.&quot;

'We are not your enemy... but you are presenting an unacceptable threat to us, and we have to respond,' Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said

The United States does not seek to topple the North Korean government and would like dialogue with Pyongyang at some point, but only on the understanding that it can never be a nuclear power, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Tuesday. Speaking to reporters at the State Department days after Pyongyang tested its second intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), Tillerson reiterated that Washington sought to persuade North Korea to give up its missile and nuclear weapons programs through peaceful pressure. "We do not seek a regime change, we do not seek a collapse of the regime, we do not seek an accelerated reunification of the peninsula, we do not seek an excuse to send our military north of the 38th Parallel," Tillerson said. "We are not your enemy ... but you are presenting an unacceptable threat to us, and we have to respond. And we hope that at some point they will begin to understand that and we would like to sit and have a dialogue with them." However, "a condition of those talks is there is no future where North Korea holds nuclear weapons or the ability to deliver those nuclear weapons to anyone in the region, much less the (U.S.) homeland," he said. North Korea has vowed to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the United States and U.S. officials said the latest test had shown it may now be able to reach most of the country. Tillerson repeated calls for North Korea's neighbour and ally China, which has urged a resumption of talks with Pyongyang, to use its influence to create the conditions for "productive dialogue." He said other options were "not particularly attractive." President Donald Trump's administration has said all options are on the table in dealing with North Korea, including military ones. However, given the potential for massive casualties from North Korean retaliation in allied South Korea and Japan and among U.S. troops there, it has stressed the need for a diplomatic solution. Earlier on Tuesday, a leading Republican senator, Lindsey Graham, said Trump had told him he was willing to go to war with North Korea "if they continued to try to hit America with an ICBM." "He's told me that. I believe him. If I were China, I would believe him, too, and do something about it. You can stop North Korea, militarily or diplomatically," he said on NBC's "Today Show." "There is a military option: To destroy North Korea's programme and North Korea itself," Graham said. "I prefer the diplomatic approach. But they will not be allowed to have a missile to hit America with a nuclear weapon on top." Asked about Graham's remarks, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders reiterated that the administration was "keeping all options on the table."

US to North Korea: Let's talk, 'at some point'

North Korea said Thursday it had released 22-year-old US student Otto Warmbier &quot;on humanitarian grounds&quot;, state media reported, two days after he was evacuated from Pyongyang after falling into a coma while imprisoned in a labour camp.

&quot;Otto Frederick Warmbier, who had been in hard labour, was sent back home on June 13, 2017 on humanitarian grounds according to the adjudication made on the same day by the Central Court of the DPRK,&quot; the state-run Korean Central News Agency said in a statement.

In a statement to <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/06/13/asia/otto-warmbier-north-korea/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>, his parents described the condition of their son: &quot;Otto has left North Korea. He is on a medivac flight on his way home. Sadly, he is in a coma and we have been told he has been in that condition since March of 2016. We learned of this only one week ago.

&quot;We want the world to know how we and our son have been brutalized and terorrized by the pariah regime in North Korea. We are so grateful that he will finally be with people who love him.&quot;

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that his department &quot;secured&quot; the student&#39;s release in talks with North Korea, <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/06/jailed-otto-warmbier-flown-north-korea-coma-170613182150197.html" target="_blank">al Jazeera</a> reports. They are pushing for the release of three more Americans to be freed.

Warmbier&#39;s parents were told that their son was given a sleeping pill shortly after his trial in March last year, and that he never woke up from it. Meanwhile, a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/06/13/otto-warmbier-was-released-by-north-korea-in-a-coma-what-do-we-know-about-his-medical-state/?hpid=hp_no-name_hp-in-the-news%3Apage%2Fin-the-news&amp;utm_term=.1b5b4febb836" target="_blank">Washington Post </a>report says his parents were told he may have been infected by botulism while in&nbsp;jail.

The&nbsp;release comes 18 months into a 15-year sentence. Warmbier, a University of Virginia student, was caught stealing&nbsp;a propaganda poster from a hotel wall&nbsp;while on a school trip. He was detained at the airport in January 2016.

&nbsp;

Otto Warmbier has been in a coma since March 2016

North Korea said Thursday it had released 22-year-old US student Otto Warmbier "on humanitarian grounds", state media reported, two days after he was evacuated from Pyongyang after falling into a coma while imprisoned in a labour camp. "Otto Frederick Warmbier, who had been in hard labour, was sent back home on June 13, 2017 on humanitarian grounds according to the adjudication made on the same day by the Central Court of the DPRK," the state-run Korean Central News Agency said in a statement. In a statement to CNN, his parents described the condition of their son: "Otto has left North Korea. He is on a medivac flight on his way home. Sadly, he is in a coma and we have been told he has been in that condition since March of 2016. We learned of this only one week ago. "We want the world to know how we and our son have been brutalized and terorrized by the pariah regime in North Korea. We are so grateful that he will finally be with people who love him." Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that his department "secured" the student's release in talks with North Korea, al Jazeera reports. They are pushing for the release of three more Americans to be freed. Warmbier's parents were told that their son was given a sleeping pill shortly after his trial in March last year, and that he never woke up from it. Meanwhile, a Washington Post report says his parents were told he may have been infected by botulism while in jail. The release comes 18 months into a 15-year sentence. Warmbier, a University of Virginia student, was caught stealing a propaganda poster from a hotel wall while on a school trip. He was detained at the airport in January 2016.

North Korea releases student from labour camp on 'humanitarian grounds'

Sirens blared and loudspeakers broadcast warnings in Japan&#39;s first civilian missile evacuation drill on Friday, conducted in a fishing town by officials wary about the threat of North Korean missiles.

The exercise comes more than a week after North Korea launched four ballistic missiles into the sea off Japan&#39;s northwest coast, with one rocket landing about 200 kilometres&nbsp;(124 miles) from the town of Oga.

Friday&#39;s drill played out a scenario in which North Korea had fired a ballistic missile on the Japanese islands.

&quot;The missile is seen to have landed within a 20-kilometre&nbsp;(12-mile) boundary west of the Oga peninsula,&quot; a speaker blared during the evacuation. &quot;The government is currently examining the damage.&quot;

Residents of the largely rural peninsula jutting into the ocean about 450 kilometres&nbsp;(280 miles) north of the capital, Tokyo, made their way to a designated evacuation centre equipped with emergency kits and protective gear.

Schoolchildren in another part of town crouched down to the ground before hurrying inside a gymnasium.

&quot;I&#39;ve seen missiles flying between foreign countries on television, but I never imagined this would happen to us,&quot; said Hideo Motokawa, a 73-year-old who participated in the drill.

Officials said the exercise was prompted by growing concern about the regional security situation.&nbsp;Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters on Friday the missile drill was worthwhile, to help educate the public.

&quot;Anything can happen these days, and it&#39;s even more true when we cannot anticipate the behaviour of our neighbouring countries,&quot; said Osamu Saito, a security supervisor in the prefecture of Akita where Oga is located.

Some Oga residents worried about how they would react in a real attack. &quot;It&#39;s a scary thing,&quot; said participant Emiko Shinzoya, 73. &quot;If it did actually happen, I don&#39;t think we can do what we practiced today. We&#39;ll just be panicked.&quot;

&nbsp;

US condemns&nbsp;North Korea, calls for &quot;new approach&quot;

North Korea is also developing nuclear-tipped missiles, in defiance of UN&nbsp;Security Council resolutions and sanctions, and conducting nuclear tests in what US&nbsp;Secretary of State Rex Tillerson described earlier this week during a visit to Japan as an &quot;ever-escalating threat&quot;.&nbsp;

Tillerson&nbsp;began his first Asian visit as secretary of state, focusing on finding a&nbsp;&quot;new approach&quot; on North Korea after what he described as two decades of failed efforts to denuclearise the insular nation.

&quot;Let me be very clear: the policy of strategic patience has ended. We are exploring a new range of security and diplomatic measures. All options are on the table,&quot; Tillerson told a news conference today in Seoul.

He said any North Korean actions that threatened the South would be met with &quot;an appropriate response&quot;.

&quot;If they elevate the threat of their weapons programme to a level that we believe requires action, that option is on the table,&quot; Tillerson said when asked about military action.

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
North Korea is behaving very badly. They have been &quot;playing&quot; the United States for years. China has done little to help!
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/842724011234791424">March 17, 2017</a></blockquote>
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(Compiled from Reuters)

Meanwhile US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is in Seoul, and said regarding the military threat of Pyongang 'All options are on the table'

Sirens blared and loudspeakers broadcast warnings in Japan's first civilian missile evacuation drill on Friday, conducted in a fishing town by officials wary about the threat of North Korean missiles. The exercise comes more than a week after North Korea launched four ballistic missiles into the sea off Japan's northwest coast, with one rocket landing about 200 kilometres (124 miles) from the town of Oga. Friday's drill played out a scenario in which North Korea had fired a ballistic missile on the Japanese islands. "The missile is seen to have landed within a 20-kilometre (12-mile) boundary west of the Oga peninsula," a speaker blared during the evacuation. "The government is currently examining the damage." Residents of the largely rural peninsula jutting into the ocean about 450 kilometres (280 miles) north of the capital, Tokyo, made their way to a designated evacuation centre equipped with emergency kits and protective gear. Schoolchildren in another part of town crouched down to the ground before hurrying inside a gymnasium. "I've seen missiles flying between foreign countries on television, but I never imagined this would happen to us," said Hideo Motokawa, a 73-year-old who participated in the drill. Officials said the exercise was prompted by growing concern about the regional security situation. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters on Friday the missile drill was worthwhile, to help educate the public. "Anything can happen these days, and it's even more true when we cannot anticipate the behaviour of our neighbouring countries," said Osamu Saito, a security supervisor in the prefecture of Akita where Oga is located. Some Oga residents worried about how they would react in a real attack. "It's a scary thing," said participant Emiko Shinzoya, 73. "If it did actually happen, I don't think we can do what we practiced today. We'll just be panicked." US condemns North Korea, calls for "new approach" North Korea is also developing nuclear-tipped missiles, in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions and sanctions, and conducting nuclear tests in what US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson described earlier this week during a visit to Japan as an "ever-escalating threat". Tillerson began his first Asian visit as secretary of state, focusing on finding a "new approach" on North Korea after what he described as two decades of failed efforts to denuclearise the insular nation. "Let me be very clear: the policy of strategic patience has ended. We are exploring a new range of security and diplomatic measures. All options are on the table," Tillerson told a news conference today in Seoul. He said any North Korean actions that threatened the South would be met with "an appropriate response". "If they elevate the threat of their weapons programme to a level that we believe requires action, that option is on the table," Tillerson said when asked about military action. North Korea is behaving very badly. They have been "playing" the United States for years. China has done little to help! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2017 × (Compiled from Reuters)

Sirens blare as Japan holds first civilian missile evacuation drill, fearing North Korea