"The President's views on North Korea have not changed," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement Tuesday evening.

"North Korea is acting in an unsafe way not only toward Japan, China, and South Korea, but the entire world. North Korea's actions are not good for anyone and certainly not good for North Korea," she added.

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The White House pushed back after Tillerson's statement earlier in the day that the U.S. diplomatic community was ready to meet face-to-face with North Korean leaders for diplomatic discussions "without precondition."

The remarks appeared to be a break from the administration's position that serious discussions would require that North Korea make an effort to denuclearize.

In his comments at an Atlantic Council event on Tuesday, Tillerson also said that Trump "is very realistic about that as well."