The United State has open channels of communication with North Korea and is investigating whether the regime is ready to enter talks on giving up its nuclear weapons programme, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Saturday.

"We are probing, so stay tuned," he told reporters after talks with Chinese officials in Beijing. "We ask. We have lines of communication with Pyongyang. We're not in a dark situation, a blackout, we have a couple, three channels open to Pyongyang."