US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Tuesday the US was willing to hold talks with North Korea providing Pyongyang dropped its nuclear threat.

“We do not seek a regime change, 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,” he told a press conference.

“We are not your enemy … but you are presenting an unacceptable threat to us, and we have to respond,” Mr Tillerson said.