(CNN) – During a visit to South Korea Friday U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson put North Korea on notice and said it’s time for the U.S. to craft a new policy with North Korea.

Tillerson said, “In the face of this ever escalating threat, it is clear a new approach is required.”

In South Korea Friday, Tillerson said that the United States has spent too much money on failed policies when it comes to North Korea and will be moving in a different direction

Tillerson said, “The policy of strategic patience has ended.”

Tillerson’s visit, which included a tour of the demilitarized zone, comes as tensions are high, with a recent uptick in North Korea’s missile testing and claims of nuclear program advances.

Tillerson said, “Certainly we do not want for things to get to a military conflict.”

Still he’s not ruling out military action as the U.S. forms its new policy for the region.

Tillerson said, “All the options are on the table. If North Korea takes actions that threatens the South Korean forces or our own forces then that would be met with an appropriate response.”

President Donald Trump Friday that North Korea has been “playing” the U.S., adding that china has done little to help. However, it is clear china does play a role in this new approach.

The secretary is visiting china this weekend and that’s when a senior Chinese diplomat says china will present its own proposal, calling for North Korea to suspend ballistic missile tests and nuclear activities, and for the United States and South Korea to stop their large-scale annual military exercises.

It’s a trade-off the state department has already dismissed, saying conditions must change before those talks could occur.