The statement Secretary of State Rex Tillerson released tonight about the North Korean ballistic missile launch is getting a lot of attention online for how terse it is.

The test comes ahead of a meeting this week between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Tillerson released the following statement:

North Korea launched yet another intermediate range ballistic missile. The United States has spoken enough about North Korea. We have no further comment.

This comes on the heels of another senior White House official saying today, in talking about North Korea and its nuclear program, “The clock has now run out, and all options are on the table.”

Some people were taken aback by how short Tillerson’s statement was:

STAFF: We should issue a statement.

TILLERSON: I don’t want to.

STAFF: Mr. Secretar–

TILLERSON : Don’t look at me!! pic.twitter.com/GBM4ZoECcw — Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) April 5, 2017

Uhhhh what does this mean pic.twitter.com/PzRpi6xjVt — Jessica Schulberg (@jessicaschulb) April 4, 2017

The State Department issued a bizarrely short statement on North Korea’s latest missile launch https://t.co/HaUGo0TqkZ pic.twitter.com/AgTaSRjbpj — BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) April 5, 2017

Others pointed out that the concise nature of the statement may have served a purpose:

I don’t understand the outrage at the State Dept.’s statement on North Korea. — Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) April 5, 2017

It’s a little unorthodox. But it makes its point; it is consistent, policy-wise; and are we to believe another “bad dog” would be useful? — Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) April 5, 2017

This is a pretty brilliant response from State to NK launch: “The US has spoken enough about North Korea. We have no further comment.” pic.twitter.com/xdsiEa8w1Q — Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) April 5, 2017

Point is, attention is like catnip for Kim. This is diplomatic equivalent of ignoring a rowdy teenager. — Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) April 5, 2017

SecState Tillerson denies NK the thing it wants most: attention. “The US has spoken enough about North Korea. We have no further comment” — Anne Rumsey Gearan (@agearan) April 5, 2017

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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