U.S. urges countries around world to take steps to show N.K. consequences for provocations

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 (Yonhap) -- The United States called for countries around the world on Monday to use all of their channels and influence with North Korea to show the communist regime that its provocations won't go unpunished. Katina Adams, a State Department spokeswoman, made the comment after a senior North Korean official told NBC Television that the country has the capacity to launch a preemptive strike on the U.S. and will keep conducting nuclear tests. "We are aware of reports. We strongly condemn the DPRK's continued development of its U.N. proscribed nuclear and ballistic missile programs in flagrant violation of multiple U.N. Security Council Resolutions," Adams told Yonhap News Agency. She also urged the North to refrain from provocative actions and inflammatory rhetoric that threaten international peace and stability, and to make the strategic choice to fulfill its international obligations and commitments and return to serious talks. "The U.S. government calls on all states to use every available channel and means of influence to make clear to the DPRK government that further provocations are unacceptable, and take steps to show there are consequences to DPRK's unlawful conduct," Adams said. The U.S. has taken an increasingly harder-line on the North, especially after its fifth nuclear test last month. Following the test, the U.S. instructed its diplomatic missions around the world to ask host governments to condemn the test and take further additional actions to "downgrade or sever" diplomatic and economic ties, an unusual move that shows the U.S. is committed to isolating Pyongyang. Earlier in the day, NBC TV quoted Ri Yong-pil, director the North Korean Foreign Ministry's Institute for American Studies, as saying that the North will launch a preemptive strike if the U.S. attempts to attack the North. "We will not step back as long as there's a nuclear threat to us from the United States," Ri said. "A preemptive nuclear strike is not something the U.S. has a monopoly on ... If we see that the U.S. would do it to us, we would do it first. ... We have the technology." jschang@yna.co.kr (END)