March 24, 2017

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is briefed as a North Korean soldier takes a photograph through a window at the border village of Panmunjom

Despite a long list of potential pitfalls, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's visit to China, the first by a senior member of the Trump administration, passed off relatively smoothly although there were no tangible gains to show. No formal agreements were announced in the visit, although the two sides said they would work together on North Korea and countering its rapidly developing nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Wrapped up in the tightly scripted proceedings, however, was a sense that the world's two biggest economies were warily testing each other out as the new administration settles down in Washington. They seemed to be reserving airing of differences for another occasion. But Tillerson's diplomatic inexperience showed in at least one instance, when in an interview published on March 18 he appeared to accuse the South Korean government of lying about the details of his visit. Unnamed South Korean officials had told the Korea Herald newspapers that Tillerson's "fatigue" was to blame for not having a meal with any officials in Seoul, as opposed to his lengthier meetings with Japanese counterparts. Tillerson disputed that in an interview with the Independent Journal Review, a conservative outlet whose reporter was the sole media representative invited to travel with the secretary of state. "They never invited us for dinner, then at the last minute they realized that optically it wasn't playing very well in public for them, so they put out a statement that we didn't have dinner because I was tired," Tillerson said, according to a transcript of the interview. Korea Pool/Yonhap via REUTERS

Despite a long list of potential pitfalls, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit to China, the first by a senior member of the Trump administration, passed off relatively smoothly although there were no tangible gains to show. No formal agreements were announced in the visit, although the two sides said they would work together on North Korea and countering its rapidly developing nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Wrapped up in the tightly scripted proceedings, however, was a sense that the world’s two biggest economies were warily testing each other out as the new administration settles down in Washington. They seemed to be reserving airing of differences for another occasion. But Tillerson’s diplomatic inexperience showed in at least one instance, when in an interview published on March 18 he appeared to accuse the South Korean government of lying about the details of his visit. Unnamed South Korean officials had told the Korea Herald newspapers that Tillerson’s “fatigue” was to blame for not having a meal with any officials in Seoul, as opposed to his lengthier meetings with Japanese counterparts. Tillerson disputed that in an interview with the Independent Journal Review, a conservative outlet whose reporter was the sole media representative invited to travel with the secretary of state. “They never invited us for dinner, then at the last minute they realized that optically it wasn’t playing very well in public for them, so they put out a statement that we didn’t have dinner because I was tired,” Tillerson said, according to a transcript of the interview. Korea Pool/Yonhap via REUTERS

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Michael Shaw
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