Clinton laying out terms for North Korea on nukes

Clinton also was holding out the prospect of full diplomatic relations and other incentives for North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons program.

In remarks to delegates at a security forum of the Association of South East Asian Nations, Clinton lamented the suffering of North Korea's people while stressing her view that the most urgent security issue in Asia is North Korea's illicit nuclear program.

"North Korea must end its pursuit of nuclear weapons and fulfill its pledges" to verifiably dismantle its nuclear arms production complex, she said, according to a text of her prepared remarks. "North Korea's response in turn has been more threatening behavior."

She called on the international community to implement the U.N. sanctions that are intended to deny North Korean ships access to ports for shipping banned cargo and to cooperate in enforcing financial sanctions against designated firms that support North Korea's nuclear program.

In separate remarks planned for later Thursday, Clinton planned to say that if North Korea takes irreversible steps to denuclearize, the United States and its negotiating partners would reciprocate in a "comprehensive and coordinated" fashion.

"Full normalization of relations, a permanent peace regime, and significant energy and economic assistance are all possible in the context of full and verifiable denuclearization," Clinton was to say, according to excerpts from prepared remarks released late Wednesday.

Those entreaties are not new, dangled in the past by the George W. Bush White House in failed efforts to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear program.

Instead, Pyongyang tested its second atomic bomb in May and launched a flurry of missile tests and warned of war — moves that led the U.S. and other nations to expand sanctions against the regime.

The administration approach combines the lure of economic aid and normal relations with the U.S. and its allies with the threat of stiff international sanctions if North Korea continues with its nuclear buildup. Obama warned recently that North Korea has until September to show tangible signs of halting its nuclear program.

At a news conference Wednesday in Phuket as part of a meeting of the 10-nation ASEAN, Clinton told reporters that North Korea must completely and irreversibly end its nuclear weapons program or face further isolation and "the unrelenting pressure" of international sanctions.

After consulting at this seaside resort with her counterparts from China, Russia, Japan and South Korea on a strategy for enforcing the latest U.N. Security Council sanctions against North Korea, Clinton said there is a more positive way ahead if the North chooses.

"We have made it very clear to the North Koreans that if they will agree to irreversible denuclearization that the United States, as well as our partners, will move forward on a package of incentive and opportunities — including normalizing relations — that will give the people of North Korea a better future," she told reporters. Washington has no diplomatic relations with Pyongyang.

1|2|Next Page>>

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos Respond to this email