SEOUL, South Korea — President Donald Trump's latest tweets on North Korea received a muted response in South Korea, where media focused Monday more on U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's acknowledgement that the U.S. is keeping communication channels open with the North.

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.

Tillerson made headlines on Saturday when he said in Beijing that the Trump administration is probing North Korea's willingness to talk, though his spokeswoman later said that North Korean officials have 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 South Korean president's office declined comment.

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 read in part.