Obama says U.S. will not be "cowed" by North Korea's threats

TOKYO, Nov. 14 (Yonhap) -- U.S. President Barack Obama said Saturday Washington
will not be "cowed by threats" from North Korea and will send a clear message
through actions that belligerent behavior will only undermine its own security.

"For decades, North Korea has chosen a path of confrontation and provocation,
including the pursuit of nuclear weapons," Obama said in a speech here on his
first Asian swing since taking office early this year.
"We will not be cowed by threats," he said, "and we will continue to send a clear
message through our actions, and not just our words: North Korea's refusal to
meet its international obligations will lead only to less security - not more."
Obama is due in Seoul mid-next week as part of his scheduled tour of Asia timed
with the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Singapore.
Pyongyang raised the stakes just ahead of the visit when a North Korean patrol
boat crossed the inter-Korean maritime border on Tuesday and opened fire on South
Korean vessels that had fired warning shots. The North Korean boat is said to
have retreated in flames with unconfirmed reports of at least one crewmember
dead. Military officials is Seoul said South Korea did not suffer any casualties.
The North had previously warned of a potential clash in the Yellow Sea, rejecting
the validity of the Northern Limit Line, a maritime border drawn by the U.S.-led
U.N. forces at the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War.
Pyongyang accused the South of instigating an unwarranted attack and demanded an
apology, accusing Seoul's hardliners of trying to subvert the current mood for
dialogue across the peninsula. On Friday, the North's military warned it will
take "merciless" action to defend what it claims is its sea border.
Obama said there is "another path" North Korea can take aside from belligerence.
"Instead of an isolation that has compounded the horrific repression of its own
people, North Korea could have a future of international integration. Instead of
gripping poverty, it could have a future of economic opportunity," he said.
"And instead of increasing insecurity, it could have a future of greater security
and respect."
This path requires North Korea to return to the six-nation denuclearization talks
and to verifiably give up its nuclear ambitions, said Obama.
North Korea must also fully account for the Japanese nationals it abducted in the
past, he said, a condition Tokyo attaches to giving rewards to Pyongyang for its
denuclearization. Pyongyang's normalization with its neighbors "can only come" if
the Japanese families receive a full accounting, Obama said.
(END)