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Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s declaration before the UN Security Council marked a stunning reversal after he proposed discussions with Pyongyang without preconditions earlier this week. That overture was almost immediately rebutted by White House officials.

Still, Mr Tillerson had planned to reiterate his call at a special UN ministerial meeting on North Korea at the council.

His prepared remarks suggested only that North Korea would have to undertake a sustained halt in its threatening behaviour before talks could begin. But Mr Tillerson changed the script. “North Korea must earn its way back to the table,” Mr Tillerson told the foreign ministers.

“The pressure campaign must and will continue until denuclearisation is achieved. We will in the meantime keep our channels of communication open.”

The debate over offering North Korea unconditional talks reflects the differences within the Trump administration as it runs out of time to prevent North Korea from perfecting a nuclear-tipped missile that can strike the US mainland. President Donald Trump has vowed to prevent such capability, with military action if necessary.

So far, US-led sanctions on North Korea and diplomatic isolation haven’t compelled Kim Jong Un’s government to stop its nuclear and missile tests, or to seek negotiations.

Asked overnight if he supported unconditional talks, Mr Trump did not answer directly. “Well, we’re going to see what happens with North Korea. We have a lot of support. There are a lot of nations that agree with us — almost everybody,” Mr Trump told reporters. He credited China — which accounts for about 90 per cent of North Korea’s external trade — with helping on pressuring North Korea, while Russia was not.

“We’d like to have Russia’s help — very important,” said Mr Trump. He raised it in a Thursday phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

At the UN Mr Tillerson called on China and Russia to go beyond UN-mandated economic sanctions. He said North Korean labourers were toiling in “slave-like conditions” in Russia for wages used to fund nuclear weapons, while China was still allowing crude oil to flow into North Korean refineries.