Clinton Warns N. Korea To Stop Threats

Top Diplomat Names Special Envoy To Tackle Talks With "Provocative And Unhelpful" Regime

(CBS/AP)  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton named a special envoy for North Korea on Friday but warned the communist nation that ties with the United States will not improve unless it stops threatening South Korea.

Amid a disturbing rise in belligerent rhetoric from the North toward the South and signs it may be getting ready to test-fire a ballistic missile, she urged Pyongyang to halt "provocative and unhelpful" gestures and rejoin stalled six-nation nuclear disarmament talks.

"North Korea is not going to get a different relationship with the United States while insulting and refusing dialogue with (South Korea)," Clinton told reporters at a news conference with South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan.

"We are calling on the government of North Korea to refrain from being provocative and unhelpful in a war of words that it has been engaged in because that is not very fruitful," she said.

Clinton, who also received a military briefing on the situation along the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea and discussed broader issues with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak, praised Seoul for its democracy and prosperity.

She said that was "in stark contrast to the tyranny and poverty across the border to the North" and commended the "people of South Korea and your leaders for your calm, resolve and determination in the face of provocative and unhelpful statements and actions by the North."

CBS News reporter Don Kirk reported that Clinton promised President Lee the U.S. would work to further develop its relationship with South Korea, and to persuade the North to agree to a "verifiable" nuclear disarmament program.

She declined to comment on intelligence suggesting the North could soon fire a missile but noted such an act would violate U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718, which was passed after Pyongyang detonated a nuclear device in 2006.

"The North should refrain from violating this resolution and also from any and all provocative actions that could harm the six-party talks and aggravate the tensions in the region," Clinton said.

She demanded that the North follow through on promises it made to dismantle and verifiably disable its nuclear weapons program during negotiations with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States last year, saying Washington is not willing to engage with Pyongyang until it does so.

Clinton said the new U.S. special representative for North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, would work with South Korea, Japan, China and others to look at ways to get Pyongyang back to the negotiating table and deal with broader policy.

Bosworth will also deal with North Korean human rights and humanitarian issues, she said, praising him as "a capable and experienced diplomat" who will report to her and President Barack Obama.

En route to South Korea from Indonesia on Thursday on her first overseas trip as America's top diplomat, Clinton surprised reporters traveling with her when she spoke candidly about a possible succession crisis in North Korea and its impact on restarting the talks.

Those comments marked a rare, if not unprecedented, instance of a senior U.S. official publicly discussing such a diplomatically sensitive matter.

On Friday in Seoul, Clinton again acknowledged concerns over a potential power struggle to replace ailing North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, but she stressed that the United States was still addressing its concerns to the existing government.

Kim, 67, (seen at left in a Feb. 14, 2009 photo) inherited leadership from his father, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, in 1994, creating the world's first communist dynasty. Last year, South Korean and U.S. officials said Kim suffered a stroke and underwent brain surgery in August.

North Korean officials have steadfastly denied Kim is ill but state-run media made no mention of Kim's public appearances for weeks last fall, feeding fears that his sudden death without naming a successor could leave a power vacuum and spark an internal struggle.

Kim's father had cultivated a powerful cult of personality that encompassed him and his son, and recent dispatches in North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency have stressed the importance of bloodline and inheritance in what is seen as references to the succession plan.

Kim Jong Il is believed to have at least three sons: Kim Jong Nam, in his late 30s; Kim Jong Chul, in his late 20s; and Kim Jong Un, a son in his mid-20s by another companion.

The eldest is believed to have been the favorite to succeed his father until he was caught trying to enter Japan on a fake passport in 2001, reportedly to visit Tokyo Disneyland.

Last month, the South Korean news agency Yonhap said the youngest, Kim Jong Un, was named Kim's heir apparent.

And, on Thursday, citing unidentified sources in Beijing, Yonhap said Kim Jong Un had registered his candidacy for March 8 parliamentary elections in a sign the son is poised to become the country's next leader.

Fueling speculation of possible power struggle, the North's state-run news agency reported last week that Kim Jong Il had replaced his defense minister and chief of the military's general staff.

[iskra100]

You should not talk about your momma like that.
Looks like your so called degree taught you little of the English language that you have to resort to using that kind of language.

Posted by demswin08 at 07:05 AM : Feb 20, 2009

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demswin08, you are vituperative, noxious and fatuous. Is that plain enough English for you?

[fremder]

That''''s right, iskra means spark in Russian. I believe in learning other languages so I took a degree in Russian. O.K. B*tch?


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Posted by iskra100
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You should not talk about your momma like that.
Looks like your so called degree taught you little of the English language that you have to resort to using that kind of language.

Posted by demswin08 at 07:05 AM : Feb 20, 2009

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You're this person's mother? Wow! It must be interesting at your house.

[betraid]

Whats the Queen of Sleaze doing in Korea trying to act like an international diplomat. She looks and acts like she should be in a tag team wrestling match. SoS is so out of character for her. The United States deserves a Secretary of State with poise, intelligence, integrity and diplomacy. Hillay is totaly lacking.
----------------------- Posted by prudentvoter
Many of us voted for Barack Obama, because he was intelligent, articulate and courteous. If we wanted our country to be represented by a junkyard dog with lipstick, we would have voted for Palin. As far as dogs go, at least Palin had more class than this Clinton Sleaze.

[ttiwkram]

"Clinton Warns N. Korea To Stop Threats" -- That's the funniest headline I've seen in a while. That leaves the door wide open for the North Koreans to threaten Hillary to stop her warnings. (Same to you, only more of it.)

[jamster31]

I have every bit of confidence in Hillary.

[notblue]

Anti-zion, didn't see any of your posts regarding the female suicide bomber who targeted women and children in a rest tent. What did the jews have to do with that one? Or do you just hate jews?

[wagolf1]

Thank you Bush for the defeat of Iraq.
You have opened the door for a Shiite coalition
from Iran to the Mediterranean.

Peace in the Middle East.

The First Step!
To stop the Ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Ghetto and Palestine.
To win the war on terrorism.
Stop paying Radical Jews to murder Muslims..

Gaza Ghetto.
Jerusalem
West Bank Ghetto.
Why has America supported ethnic cleansing for 60 years?
Why has the USA paid to create Radical Islamic Extremists?
The Jews have created Jihad terrorists. Thanks so much.

Stop the insanity.
Yahweh, YHVH, Adonai; was invented by rag-headed goat herders living in caves.
A fantasy world of religious stupidity.
Radicalized, Religious, Welfare Jews, Terrorists.
The most destabilizing entity in the world since its fraudulent inception.

Israel is a failure of Judaism.
Israel is an embarrassment for the USA an embarrassment to humanity.

The Israeli atrocities are not justified by the atrocities of Hitler,
just the opposite.
The USA should not support Radical Jews murdering Palestinians, stealing their property, homes and businesses, like Hitler did to the Jews.
The USA should stop paying to create Radical Islamic terrorists.

The world condemned Hitler,
the World has finally again condemned Israel.
The USA must also condemn the Ugly Step Children of Hitler.

The first step
to have peace in the Middle East;
Stop pouring my tax dollars down the rat hole of Israel.
Please.

[whitemale09]

Get this folks...

I can post a comment on every CBS story on this website except for Netanyahoo.

How do you like that for Israeli censorship!

[neoconrcrazy]

xxxxx

[tomadams99]

Boy Hillary, I bet old Kim Il Jong and his boys of war are shaking in their boots. What are you going to do...threaten to open up a third war zone for us to pay for. Yea, that's it...build your reputation on the backs of soldiers, sailors, and airmen.