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Phuket, Thailand (AFP) July 23, 2009 US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Thursday urged Asian nations to enforce sanctions against North Korea, sparking an unusually personal outburst from the nuclear-armed communist state. Clinton was later expected to hold out both incentives and the threat of reprisals in a bid to prod Pyongyang into scrapping its nuclear aims, amid concerns that military-ruled Myanmar is now receiving help from North Korea. North Korea hit back by describing six-party disarmament talks on its atomic weapons programme as dead and urging the United States to drop its "hostile" policy, while calling Clinton unintelligent and a "funny lady." "North Korea must end its pursuit of nuclear weapons and fulfil its pledges. North Korea's response in turn has been more threatening behaviour," Clinton told the 26-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum (ARF). Speaking in the Thai resort of Phuket, she said Washington would use "every avenue" to get North Korea to drop its nuclear programme, adding: "The ASEAN Regional Forum can play an important role in achieving this outcome." Kim Jong-Il's hermit regime bolted the six-party negotiations with the United States, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea after the UN Security Council censured it for a long-range rocket launch in April. North Korea then conducted an underground nuclear test in May, triggering a Security Council resolution for beefed-up inspections of shipments going to and from the country and an expanded arms embargo. Clinton ramped up concerns over Pyongyang's activities earlier this week when she said there were concerns that it was transferring nuclear technology to fellow pariah state Myanmar. The US secretary of state -- who met her counterparts from Russia, Japan, South Korea and China on Wednesday -- called on the ARF participant states to continue carrying out the terms of the latest resolution. "That means denying North Korean vessels access to any trans-shipment points and cooperating with the enforcement of financial sanctions against those designated entities that support North Korea's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons," she said. Last week, in line with resolution 1874, the Security Council slapped sanctions on five individuals and five entities from North Korea known to be involved in Pyongyang's banned nuclear and ballistic missile activities. Japanese officials at the forum confirmed that Tokyo would freeze all their assets in Japan on Friday. Clinton was expected to outline a new approach to Pyongyang later Thursday, including a bid to tempt the North into "full and verifiable denuclearisation" with "significant energy and economic assistance." But a North Korean delegate at the talks attacked Washington's "deep-rooted hostile policy" and vowed no dialogue until it changes, Seoul's Yonhap news agency reported from Phuket. A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman quoted separately by the North's state news agency accused Clinton of making "a spate of vulgar remarks unbecoming for her position everywhere she went since she was sworn in." "Her words suggest that she is by no means intelligent," the spokesman said. "Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping. Anyone making misstatements has to pay for them." Clinton meanwhile sought to rally support over Myanmar after her aides held a rare meeting late Wednesday with a delegation from the ruling junta focusing on the North Korea sanctions and the treatment of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, a US official said Thursday. Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win pledged that his country would obey the UN sanctions on North Korea when he met his Japanese counterpart Hirofumi Nakasone on Wednesday, Japanese officials said. "We are gratified by Burma's willingness to enforce the Security Council resolution to curb North Korea's nuclear ambitions," Clinton said in her ARF speech, referring to Myanmar by its former name. In Wednesday's meeting with the Myanmar officials, US officials said future steps on improving ties would depend on the outcome of the trial of Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. She faces up to five years in jail after an American man swam uninvited to her lakeside house in May. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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![]() ![]() Washington (AFP) July 22, 2009 The United States and its allies in the Asia-Pacific region are planning a "wide range of options" for a possible leadership change in North Korea, a top US military commander said Wednesday. "We are prepared to execute a wide range of options in concert with allies in South Korea and in discussions through State (Department), which would have the lead, with countries in the region and inte ... read more |
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