The US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, has welcomed what he called the restraint North Korea has shown recently with its nuclear weapons program, and said it could mean a path is opening to a possible dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang.

Tillerson spoke on Tuesday after the US announced new sanctions against North Korea and the two countries accused each other of posing a nuclear threat.

At the Conference on Disarmament at the United Nations in Geneva, Pyongyang’s envoy declared it would never put its atomic arsenal up for negotiation.

The US envoy, Robert Wood, said the “path to dialogue still remains an option” but added that Washington was “undeterred in defending against the threat North Korea poses”.

The US was ready to use “the full range of capabilities at our disposal”, he said.

Tillerson spoke to reporters in a televised briefing in Washington. He said: “We have had no missile launches or provocative acts on the part of North Korea since the unanimous adoption of the UN security council resolution.



“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 some time in the near future having some dialogue.”

It was earlier announced that the US was imposing sanctions on Chinese and Russian companies and individuals, including those dealing in Pyongyang’s energy trade and helping North Korean entities gain access to the US and international finance.

“Treasury will continue to increase pressure on North Korea by targeting those who support the advancement of nuclear and ballistic missile programs,” the treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, said in a statement.

“It is unacceptable for individuals and companies in China, Russia and elsewhere to enable North Korea to generate income used to develop weapons of mass destruction and destabilize the region.”

The US Office of Foreign Assets Control designated 10 “third-country” entities, six of them Chinese-owned, one Russian, one North Korean and two based in Singapore. They included one Namibia-based subsidiary of a Chinese company and a North Korean entity operating in Namibia. The six individuals named included four Russians, one Chinese and one North Korean.

In response, China said the US should “immediately correct its mistake” of targeting Chinese companies and individuals.

“China opposes unilateral sanctions out of the UN security council framework, especially the ‘long-arm jurisdiction’ over Chinese entities and individuals exercised by any country in accordance with its domestic laws,” an embassy spokesman said.

“We strongly urge the US to immediately correct its mistake, so as not to impact bilateral cooperation on relevant issues.”

UN sanctions were imposed earlier this month, in response to five North Korean nuclear weapons tests and four long-range missile launches. North Korea has been under UN sanctions since 2006. The new sanctions could slash the Asian country’s $3bn annual export revenue by a third.



The US-drafted resolution banned North Korean exports of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood. It also prohibited countries from increasing numbers of North Korean laborers working abroad and banned new joint ventures with North Korea and any new investment in current joint ventures.