The State Department Issued A Bizarrely Short Statement About North Korea

"What more can I say?" —Jay Z/Secretary of State Rex Tillerson

By
Hayes Brown
by Hayes Brown

BuzzFeed News Reporter

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is a man of few words. Very, very few words apparently.

Emmanuel Dunand / AFP / Getty Images

The former CEO of Exxon-Mobil has famously eschewed facetime with the press, both in his current and former positions. But given his public role you'd think he'd be a little more...forthcoming.

So when North Korea test-launched another missile on Tuesday, at least the fifth since President Donald Trump came into office 74 days ago, are we that surprised that this is his statement?

State Department

"North Korea launched another intermediate range ballistic missile. The United States has spoken enough about North Korea. We have no further comment," read the statement in its entirety.

...Yes. Yes, we can be surprised.

CBS

North Korea is a nuclear state and those intermediate-range missiles can reach several of our allies, including Japan and South Korea. You would think they'd want a little more than that?

Plus, North Korea is set to be a major topic at Thursday's meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinpeng. Maybe...a little preview of your stance? Maybe?

Str / AFP / Getty Images

I mean...

Dave Clark @DaveClark_AFP

Tillerson's North Korea statement is 23 words long. None of them condemning anyone. https://t.co/UGCqjrzorf

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Anyway, best guess: Tillerson has been bumping this in his seventh floor suite at the State Department's headquarters.

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