US welcomes DPRK's 'restraint' on nuclear program

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson speaks during a press briefing in Washington DC, the United States, Aug 22, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday welcomed "some level of restraint" showed by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea with its nuclear program, seeing a possible pathway to a future talk between Washington and Pyongyang.

"We have had no missile launches or provocative acts from the part of North Korea (DPRK) since the unanimous adoption of the UN Security Council resolution," said Tillerson in a press briefing in the State Department.

The United Nations Security Council unanimously passed a resolution imposing new sanctions on DPRK for its continued intercontinental ballistic missile testing on Aug 5.

Tillerson said he was pleased to see Pyongyang "has certainly demonstrated some level of restraint that we have not seen in the past."

"We hope that it is the beginning of the signal that we are looking for -- that they are ready to restrain their level of tensions, they're ready to restrain their provocative acts," said the US top diplomat.

"Perhaps we are seeing our pathway to some time in the near future having some dialogue," but "need to see more on their part," Tillerson added.

Tillerson's remarks came amid an ongoing joint military drill held by the United States and the Republic of Korea (ROK).

The two-week-long war games mobilized about 17,500 US soldiers and some 50,000 ROK troops.

Pyongyang said on Monday the US-ROK joint military drill had plunged the Korean Peninsula into a critical phase.