WASHINGTON -- The top diplomats of the United States and Russia have agreed to work together to peacefully resolve the issue of North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, the State Department said Wednesday.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reached the agreement during a phone call Tuesday, according to the department's spokeswoman, Heather Nauert.
"The two discussed concerns related to the DPRK's destabilizing nuclear program and emphasized that neither the United States nor Russia accepts the DPRK as a nuclear power," she said in a readout, using the acronym for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
North Korea this year conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test and a series of ballistic missile launches, including the Nov. 29 test of a new intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching anywhere in the US.