Washington - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
said Wednesday that North Korea will face consequences for detonating
a nuclear device and for the 'belligerent' threats issued against
neighbouring countries.
Pyongyang warned Wednesday that it will attack any US or South
Korean naval vessels who intercept North Korean ships, one day after
Seoul joined a US-led initiative to halt illicit shipments of weapons
of mass destruction related technology.
North Korea carried out its second detonation of a nuclear bomb on
Monday in violation of UN Security Council resolutions and a
disarmament agreement produced by years of six-nation negotiations.
North Korea 'has ignored the international community. It has
abrogated the obligations it entered into through the six-party
talks. And it continues to act in a provocative and belligerent
manner toward its neighbours,' Clinton said. 'There are consequences
to such actions.'
The international community and UN Security Council swiftly
condemned the nuclear blast and subsequent missile tests and the
council has begun discussions on enacting sanctions against
Pyongyang.
During a press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Aboul
Gheit, Clinton said the goal remains to 'rein in' North Korea and
bring the isolated country back into the six-nation talks designed to
keep the peninsula free of nuclear weapons.
South Korea reversed policy after North Korea's nuclear test by
joining the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), a group of
dozens of countries seeking to prevent the transport of dangerous
weapons. The Stalinist state said on Wednesday said it was not bound
by the armistice that ended the 1950-1953 Korean war and called South
Korean President Lee Myung Bak a 'traitor' for joining the PSI
initiative.
'As declared to the world, our revolutionary forces will consider
the full participation in the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI)
by the Lee Myung Bak group of traitors as a declaration of war
against us,' the statement said.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters that North
Korean won't gain the international attention it seeks through
'through sabre-rattling and bluster and threats.'
'Threats won't get North Korea the attention it craves,' he said.
'Their actions are continuing to further deepen their own isolation
from the international community and from their rights and
obligations that they themselves have agreed to live up to.'
USA
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