U.S.' Tillerson sees possible path to North Korea dialogue 'in near future'

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson holds a press briefing at the State Department in Washington, U.S., August 22, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appeared to make a peace overture to North Korea on Tuesday, welcoming what he called the restraint it had shown recently in its weapons programs and saying he hoped a path could be opening for dialogue "sometime in the near future.""We have had no missile launches or provocative acts on the part of North Korea since the unanimous adoption of the U.N. Security Council resolution," Tillerson told reporters, referring to U.N. sanctions on North Korea agreed on Aug. 5.

"We hope that this is the beginning of this signal that we've been looking for - that they are ready to restrain their level of tensions, they're ready to restrain their provocative acts, and that perhaps we are seeing our pathway to sometime in the near future having some dialogue," Tillerson added.