SEOUL, South Korea — President Barack Obama’s top envoy for North Korea warned of possible "consequences” if the regime pushes ahead with a threatened atomic test and urged Pyongyang to instead return to dialogue with Washington to defuse nuclear tensions.
Stephen Bosworth arrived in Seoul from Beijing just hours after North Korea accused the Obama administration of harboring a hostile policy toward Pyongyang, saying it would expand its nuclear arsenal in response.
"Nothing would be expected from the U.S., which remains unchanged in its hostility toward its dialogue partner,” North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried Friday by state media. The North "will bolster its nuclear deterrent as it has already clarified.”
Bosworth urged North Korea — which shocked the world by conducting a nuclear test in 2006 — not to carry out another atomic test, as the communist regime has threatened to do in retaliation for U.N. sanctions against its recent rocket launch
"If the North Koreans decide to carry out a second nuclear test, we will deal with consequences of that. And there will be consequences,” Bosworth said, without elaborating.
Bosworth’s trip to the region came as North Korea continued to ratchet up nuclear tensions following its controversial April 5 rocket launch.
Pyongyang characterized the launch as a successful bid to send a satellite into space.
The U.S. and others saw it as a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions barring the North from ballistic missile-related activity since the same technology can be used to fire an intercontinental missile mounted with nuclear arms.
by the associated press
Stephen Bosworth arrived in Seoul from Beijing just hours after North Korea accused the Obama administration of harboring a hostile policy toward Pyongyang, saying it would expand its nuclear arsenal in response.
"Nothing would be expected from the U.S., which remains unchanged in its hostility toward its dialogue partner,” North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried Friday by state media. The North "will bolster its nuclear deterrent as it has already clarified.”
Bosworth urged North Korea — which shocked the world by conducting a nuclear test in 2006 — not to carry out another atomic test, as the communist regime has threatened to do in retaliation for U.N. sanctions against its recent rocket launch
"If the North Koreans decide to carry out a second nuclear test, we will deal with consequences of that. And there will be consequences,” Bosworth said, without elaborating.
Bosworth’s trip to the region came as North Korea continued to ratchet up nuclear tensions following its controversial April 5 rocket launch.
Pyongyang characterized the launch as a successful bid to send a satellite into space.
The U.S. and others saw it as a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions barring the North from ballistic missile-related activity since the same technology can be used to fire an intercontinental missile mounted with nuclear arms.
by the associated press
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