Obama warns NK over plans to launch rocket
Source: Agencies |
March 26, 2012, Monday
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Warning North Korea from its doorstep, US President Barack Obama said Pyongyang risks deepening its "isolation in the international community" if it proceeds with a planned long-range rocket launch.
"North Korea will achieve nothing by threats or provocations," Obama said yesterday during a news conference in Seoul, South Korea, where he is to attend a nuclear security summit.
Obama spoke after his first visit to the Demilitarized Zone, the heavily patrolled no man's land between the two Koreas, where he peered long and hard at North Korea.
"It's like you're in a time warp," Obama said. "It's like you're looking across 50 years into a country that has missed 40 or 50 years of progress."
From the DMZ, Obama returned to Seoul for a private meeting with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.
Both leaders warned there would be consequences if North Korea proceeds with its plans to launch a satellite using a long-range rocket next month, a move the US and South Korea say would violate a United Nations ban on nuclear and missile activity because the same technology could be used for long-range missiles.
Obama said the launch would jeopardize a deal for the US to resume stalled food aid to North Korea and may result in the tightening of harsh economic sanctions on the already-impoverished nation.
"Bad behavior will not be rewarded," Obama said. "There had been a pattern, I think, for decades in which North Korea thought if they had acted provocatively, then somehow they would be bribed into ceasing and desisting acting provocatively."
The planned rocket launch is yet another setback for the United States in years of on-again, off-again attempts to launch real negotiations. The announcement also played into Republican criticism that Obama had been too quick to jump at a new chance for talks with the North Koreans.
North Korea walked away from international disarmament talks in 2009. Years of fitful negotiations had succeeded in ending part of its nuclear program but failed in stopping it from building and testing nuclear devices and long-range missiles.
The US is a party to the stalled talks, along with China, Japan, Russia and South Korea. The negotiations were aimed at offering North Korea economic and diplomatic incentives to give up threatening elements of its nuclear program.
It appeared close to returning to talks. The US offered food aid in February in return for an agreement to freeze uranium enrichment and allow in UN inspectors. North Korea also agreed to a moratorium on long-range missile and nuclear tests.
Obama's visit takes place as North Koreans mark the end of the 100-day mourning period for longtime leader Kim Jong Il. Since Kim's death, son Kim Jong Un has been paying a series of high-profile visits to military units and made his own trip to the "peace village" of Panmunjom inside the DMZ earlier this month.
Obama said he had not yet been able to make a full assessment of the new leader, saying the political situation in North Korea appeared to be "unsettled."
"North Korea will achieve nothing by threats or provocations," Obama said yesterday during a news conference in Seoul, South Korea, where he is to attend a nuclear security summit.
Obama spoke after his first visit to the Demilitarized Zone, the heavily patrolled no man's land between the two Koreas, where he peered long and hard at North Korea.
"It's like you're in a time warp," Obama said. "It's like you're looking across 50 years into a country that has missed 40 or 50 years of progress."
From the DMZ, Obama returned to Seoul for a private meeting with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.
Both leaders warned there would be consequences if North Korea proceeds with its plans to launch a satellite using a long-range rocket next month, a move the US and South Korea say would violate a United Nations ban on nuclear and missile activity because the same technology could be used for long-range missiles.
Obama said the launch would jeopardize a deal for the US to resume stalled food aid to North Korea and may result in the tightening of harsh economic sanctions on the already-impoverished nation.
"Bad behavior will not be rewarded," Obama said. "There had been a pattern, I think, for decades in which North Korea thought if they had acted provocatively, then somehow they would be bribed into ceasing and desisting acting provocatively."
The planned rocket launch is yet another setback for the United States in years of on-again, off-again attempts to launch real negotiations. The announcement also played into Republican criticism that Obama had been too quick to jump at a new chance for talks with the North Koreans.
North Korea walked away from international disarmament talks in 2009. Years of fitful negotiations had succeeded in ending part of its nuclear program but failed in stopping it from building and testing nuclear devices and long-range missiles.
The US is a party to the stalled talks, along with China, Japan, Russia and South Korea. The negotiations were aimed at offering North Korea economic and diplomatic incentives to give up threatening elements of its nuclear program.
It appeared close to returning to talks. The US offered food aid in February in return for an agreement to freeze uranium enrichment and allow in UN inspectors. North Korea also agreed to a moratorium on long-range missile and nuclear tests.
Obama's visit takes place as North Koreans mark the end of the 100-day mourning period for longtime leader Kim Jong Il. Since Kim's death, son Kim Jong Un has been paying a series of high-profile visits to military units and made his own trip to the "peace village" of Panmunjom inside the DMZ earlier this month.
Obama said he had not yet been able to make a full assessment of the new leader, saying the political situation in North Korea appeared to be "unsettled."
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