Story highlights "We're not in a dark situation or a blackout," Tillerson said

"We've made it clear that we hope to resolve this through talks," he said

Washington (CNN) Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Saturday that the US has direct lines of communication to North Korea, and his immediate goal is to "calm things down" in the international standoff over the country's nuclear weapons program.

Tillerson was responding to a question at a news conference in Beijing about whether the North Koreans actually want to talk before completing their weapons development program

"We are probing, so stay tuned," Tillerson replied. "We ask, 'Would you like to talk?' We have lines of communications to Pyongyang. We're not in a dark situation or a blackout. We have a couple of direct channels to Pyongyang. We can talk to them. We do talk to them. Directly, through our own channels."

Tillerson also said the administration's goal with respect to North Korea is peace and stability.

"We've made it clear that we hope to resolve this through talks," he said, emphasizing the principal objective "is a peaceful resolution."

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