US urges talks as NKorea brags of nuclear arsenal

WASHINGTON, D.C.: The United States is ready to talk to North Korea “without preconditions” but remains determined to force it to abandon its nuclear arsenal, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila).

But even as Washington stressed the importance of a negotiated end to the standoff, Kim Jong-un vowed to make his nation “the strongest nuclear power and military power in the world.”