Washington. US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Tuesday (03/10) played down an apparent split between the US president and his top diplomat over outreach to North Korea, saying America's focus was still on finding a diplomatic solution to the dispute with Pyongyang.

President Donald Trump, who has traded insults and threats with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in recent weeks, said on Sunday Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was "wasting his time" trying to negotiate with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program.

Tillerson, during a trip to China on Saturday, said the United States had direct channels of communication with the North and was probing Pyongyang to see if it was interested in dialogue.

He expressed hope for reducing tensions with North Korea, which is fast advancing toward its goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the US mainland.

"I do not see the divergence as strongly as some ... have interpreted it," Mattis said.

"President Trump's guidance to both Secretary Tillerson and me has been very clearly that we would ... pursue the diplomatic effort to include with the various initiatives with China," Mattis told a Senate hearing.

"I believe that Secretary Tillerson is accurately stating that we are probing for opportunities to talk with the North. All we're doing is probing. We're not talking with them, consistent with the president's dismay about not talking with them before the time is right."

US Senator Jack Reed, who was asking Mattis about the split at a televised Senate hearing, questioned whether some degree of communication was vital, given the risks of miscalculation by either side that could lead to conflict.

"I think the president dispatching Secretary Tillerson to Beijing here within the past several days to carry messages and to look at the way we can work with them is the most accurate answer to your question, that in fact this is part of a whole of government, integrated effort that we have underway right now," Mattis said.

It was not the first time the White House and State Department have seemed at odds on policy issues, but the White House has said Trump still had confidence in Tillerson as secretary of state.

Trump has vowed to halt North Korea's nuclear ambitions and tensions have escalated in recent months, with Pyongyang conducting its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sept. 3. It has also threatened to test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific.

The fate of Americans held in North Korea is also a bone of contention. The Trump administration has demanded North Korea release three US citizens it has detained: missionary Kim Dong Chul and academics Tony Kim and Kim Hak Song.

The Trump White House and State Department have taken to divergent stances on other foreign policy issues. When a dispute over Qatar erupted this year, Trump strongly backed Gulf Arab leaders who accuse Qatar of supporting Iran as well as Islamist militants.

Trump accused Qatar of being a "high-level" funder of terrorism even as the Pentagon and Tillerson cautioned against the military, commercial and humanitarian effects of a boycott imposed by Arab states.

Months into the dispute, Trump adopted a position more in line with that of the State Department.

Reuters