US envoy says 'real dialogue' needed with North Korea

BANGKOK: The top US envoy for North Korea said Friday that "real dialogue" is needed to gauge what Pyongyang wants from its accelerated drive towards nuclear weapons statehood.

Joseph Yun's comments came after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson created a stir by appearing to open a door to direct talks with the North without preconditions -- a major policy shift that the White House swiftly rowed back on.

"It's very hard to discern what their intent is without, as I said, having a real dialogue," Yun, the US Special Representative on North Korea policy, said of the reclusive regime.

"We are open to dialogue. And we hope they will agree to have a dialogue," he told reporters in Bangkok.

It is necessary to exercise both "direct diplomacy as well as sanctions" to rein in the pariah state's nuclear programme, he added.

Yun is in Bangkok as part of a December 11-15 trip that also included a stop in Japan, as Washington seeks to shore up regional support for its "maximum pressure" campaign in response to Pyongyang's increasingly powerful nuclear and ballistic missile tests.