Obama denounces N. Korea for nuke test, warns of consequences

(ATTN: ADDS Obama's remarks, expert's comments, other details throughout)
By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, May 25 (Yonhap) -- U.S. President Barack Obama denounced North Korea
Monday for conducting nuclear and missile tests, warning of consequences unless
the North abandons its weapons of mass destruction.

"North Korea's nuclear ballistic missile programs pose a great threat to the
peace and security of the world, and I strongly condemn their reckless action,"
Obama said in the Rose Garden at the White House before departing for Arlington
National Cemetery for Memorial Day.
Obama said he will "work with our friends and our allies to stand up to this
behavior, and we will redouble our efforts toward a more robust international
nonproliferation regime that all countries have responsibilities to meet."
The U.N. Security Council will convene later Monday to discuss the North's
nuclear test, which is in violation of a series of council resolutions banning
the North from conducting nuclear and long-range missile tests.
North Korea said it conducted an underground nuclear test earlier in the day to
"bolster up its nuclear deterrent for self-defence."
South Korean officials said that they detected seismic tremors in the
northeastern city of Poongkye-ri, North Hamgyong Province, near the site where
the North detonated its first nuclear device in 2006.
The U.S. State Department also said the test was conducted.
"The U.S. Geological Survey confirmed that a seismic event took place consistent
with a test," a State Department official said. "We are analyzing the data."
North Korea's announcement on the nuclear test followed its warning about
possible missile launches, which had caused Japanese vessels to stay away from
waters off North Korea's northeastern coast.
North Korea has threatened to conduct further nuclear and long-range missile
tests, withdraw from multilateral nuclear talks and restart its disabled nuclear
facilities unless the U.N. Security Council apologized for sanctioning three
North Korean firms for the North's April 5 rocket launch.
Pyongyang insists the objective of the launch was to put a satellite into orbit,
while the U.S. and its allies believe it was a cover for a ballistic missile
test.
Obama said he will seek further sanctions on North Korea.
"Now the United States and the international community must take action in
response," he said. "As a result, North Korea is not only deepening its own
isolation, it's also inviting stronger international pressure -- that's evident
overnight, as Russia and China, as well a our traditional allies of South Korea
and Japan, have all come to the same conclusion: North Korea will not find
security and respect through threats and illegal weapons."
In a separate statement released earlier in the day, Obama urged the North to
abandon its nuclear and missile ambitions.
"It will not find international acceptance unless it abandons its pursuit of
weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery," he said.
North Korea conducted its first nuclear device in 2006 and fired long-range
ballistic missiles several times since 1998.
The U.S. and its allies believe North Korea has produced several nuclear weapons
using plutonium produced by its only operating nuclear reactor in Yongbyon,
located north of its capital of Pyongyang.
North Korea appears not to have succeeded in making nuclear warheads suitable for
mounting on ballistic missiles.
The North's recent provocations are seen by many as its traditional brinkmanship
to get more concessions in bilateral talks with the U.S., which were suspended in
2001 by the hard-line Bush administration.
Under the Bill Clinton administration, high-level exchanges took place between
North Korea and the U.S. to address U.S. concerns over the North's nuclear and
ballistic missile capabilities, with then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
and North Korea's Marshal Jo Myong-rok visiting each other's capitals.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other U.S. officials have said they are
ready to engage the North bilaterally, as well as through the six-party talks.
Albright recently said in a forum, "Ultimately, I think that what the North
Koreans want are bilateral talks with the United States."
Bruce Klingner, senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, however, said
North Korea's second nuclear detonation represents a change from its policy of
brinkmanship to a consolidation of its status as a nuclear power.
"Pyongyang's eagerness to conduct a nuclear test so quickly after its long-range
missile launch shows it has abandoned its previous facade of negotiations and is
instead striving to achieve a viable nuclear weapon and ICBM delivery
capability," Klingner said. "The rapid pace of Pyongyang's provocations since
January indicates it has altered its objectives and is no longer responsive to
diplomatic entreaties."
The Korea expert predicted North Korea will continue its nuclear and missile
activity during the remainder of the year.
"It is evident that Pyongyang is now intent on achieving strategic technological
achievements rather than gaining tactical negotiating leverage," he said. "As
such, North Korea is likely to continue additional missile and nuclear activity
during 2009, impervious to naive initiatives such as offering a senior-level
presidential envoy for bilateral discussion."
He urged Washington to press for additional sanctions and "lead a multilateral
effort to identify and target proliferators, as well as those complicit in North
Korea's illegal activities such as currency counterfeiting and drug smuggling."
Secretary Clinton recently said it "seems implausible if not impossible" that
North Korea will return to the six-party negotiations, at least for the time
being, warning the Obama administration will not bow to North Korea's
brinkmanship.
"The ball is in the North Korean court, and we are not concerned about chasing
after North Korea, about offering concessions to North Korea," Clinton said.
"They know what their obligations are. We are all urging that they return and
begin once again to act with us to move the agenda forward."
The six-party process has been in a lull since December, when North Korea refused
to accept a verification protocol of its nuclear facilities, saying the protocol
regime should be discussed in the third phase of denuclearization.
The process is currently in the second phase of disabling the North's nuclear
facilities in return for the equivalent of 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil and
other benefits.
The third and final phase calls for the complete and verifiable dismantlement of
the North's nuclear facilities in exchange for massive economic aid and political
and diplomatic benefits.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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