Hong Kong(CNN) US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson heads to Asia later this week for a regional meeting on security issues, which is expected to be attended by ministers from North Korea, China, South Korea and Japan.
It could be an opportune moment for a diplomatic breakthrough on Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs, which have been causing massive headaches for US President Donald Trump. But questions linger over whether Tillerson can speak for his administration given contradictory remarks from US politicians.
"The Trump administration is still scrambling to find a policy on North Korea. They're still seeking an easy solution when none exist," said Adam Mount, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
"They are trying out various options and they have been contradictory on nearly every policy that they have tried on or tried out."
On Tuesday, Tillerson said the US was willing to talk to North Korea, while US Senator Lindsey Graham said military options are "inevitable if North Korea continues" on its current path of weapons development.
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The Trump administration policy on North Korea has been to ratchet up the pressure on Pyongyang with sanctions in order to push them to the negotiating table.
However, some North Korea watchers worry that inconsistent and opaque messaging from the United States has hamstrung their position when it comes to North Korea, a country which test-fired two long-range missiles in July that could theoretically reach the US mainland.
"The way that the message is coming out, it's a bit confusing on the surface of it," said Dr. John Park, the director of the Korea Working Group and a professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School.
US officials have steadily condemned North Korea's missile tests, which are a violation of international law. Some policies and talking points have remained unchanged, the biggest being that negotiations without North Korea committing to denuclearization up-front are a non-starter.
Phrases such as "all options are on the table" and "the era of strategic patience is over" are common refrains from Trump's team, but there have been a dearth of specifics. Changes in tone have been commonplace.
Here are some examples of this inconsistency since North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test on July 28:
Though Tillerson seemed to warm to the idea of negotiations Tuesday, the United States has maintained for years -- including during the Bush and Obama administrations -- that North Korea and its leader must agree to denculearization up front for talks to proceed.
That's likely a non-starter for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un now, who looks at former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein -- who did not have nuclear weapons -- and Libya's Moammar Gaddafi -- who gave up his nuclear ambitions for sanctions relief and aid, only to be toppled and killed after the US intervened in the country's civil unrest -- and see the ability to attack the United States with a nuclear weapon as the key to preventing any US-led attempts at regime change.
Analysts worry that the contradictory messaging and the United States' failure to grasp that North Korea's ability to nuke the United States is no longer just theoretical is dangerous.
"What we're seeing is a sense of panic and urgency in the United States," said Park of Harvard University.
Jeffrey Lewis, an expert on nonproliferation issues and the director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterrey, said the recent test should be a reality-check for policy makers in the United States about the seriousness of the issue.
"We see all types of evidence that this is a real and serious nuclear program and missile program. They are putting a lot of money into it," Lewis told CNN's Kristie Lu Stout. "We (Americans) always treat North Korea like it's some kind of joke. They are not laughing and the joke is on us."