SEOUL, South Korea — President Trump’s latest tweets on North Korea, in which he said his top diplomat is wasting his time trying to start talks, were seen by some in Asia as sowing confusion and by others as hard reality.

A South Korean newspaper condemned Trump’s remarks for belittling efforts toward a peaceful resolution of the nuclear issue, while a Chinese international affairs expert saw the tweets as a message to North Korea and China.

In Hong Kong, a Navy commander reiterated Trump’s “resolve to use every lever available to us to convince North Korea to alter its dangerous and aggressive behavior.”

In a Monday editorial, South Korea’s progressive Kyunghyung Shinmun newspaper said that Trump’s remarks were problematic primarily because they show inconsistency in policy. “To negotiate with North Korea, consistency is the most critical element,” it said.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made headlines Saturday when he said in Beijing that the Trump administration is probing North Korea’s willingness to talk, though a spokeswoman later said that North Korea has shown no interest in talks on denuclearization.

On Sunday, Trump tweeted that he had told Tillerson “he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man,” referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The country has conducted a series of missile and nuclear tests that have demonstrated advances in its capabilities.

South Korea’s largest daily newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, warned in an editorial that any U.S.-North Korea talks should not recognize the North as a nuclear state, or the South would be forced to seek nuclear arms, too.

A small progressive online newspaper, Voice of People, said in an editorial that Trump’s comments are signs of confusion in U.S. policy toward North Korea, though it said the tweet is unlikely to cause a major change in Tillerson’s position. “Such unstable U.S. policy toward North Korea is entirely a burden on us,” the editorial said.

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