|
U.S. warns Norks not to raise tensions with missile tests
WASHINGTON, June 25 (Yonhap) -- The United States Friday warned North Korea not to escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula with another round of missile tests."North Korea should refrain from actions that aggravate tensions," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said in response to North Korea having set no-sail zones in waters near the disputed sea border with South Korea in the Yellow Sea. "In the past, it has sometimes been followed by missile launches," Crowley said. "We would hate to see North Korea go through with another round of missile launches. Now is the time to take steps to improve relations with its neighbors and cease any provocative behavior." North Korea has designated no-sail zones in the Yellow Sea in past years before it fired missiles or artillery shells. The fresh nine-day no-sail zones effective until Sunday come amid escalating tensions after North Korea's torpedoeing of a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors in March. "This is certainly not the kind of step that we want to see North Korea take," Crowley said. "We'd rather see them take concrete steps -- irreversible steps -- towards fulfillment of the 2005 Joint Statement; comply with international law, including U.N. Security Council Resolutions 1718 and 1874; cease provocative behaviors; and take steps to improve relations with its neighbors. I suspect that further missile launches is not a step in that direction." Resolutions 1718 and 1874 call for implementation of an overall arms embargo and economic sanctions on North Korea for missile and nuclear tests early last year. Crowley also reaffirmed the strong U.S. alliance with South Korea on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the start of the 1950-53 Korean War. Crowley lauded South Korea for "a significant achievement in terms of the economic development over these previous decades -- once a recipient of international assistance and now a leading member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and donor in its own right." "In the 1970s, the GDP of South Korea and North Korea were roughly the same; now there are two compelling stories for dramatically different reasons," he said. "South Korea today is the sixth-largest trading nation in the world. It has the second and third-largest producers of cell phones, for example; the first and second-largest manufacturers of televisions." Crowley urged North Korea to "look at the exemplary example of development and democracy in South Korea and choose a different course than the one it is currently on." "There's no difference between the people and the capabilities of the people on both sides of the 30th parallel," he said. "There is a dramatic difference in the responsibility and capability of the respective governments."
Posted by: Steve White 2010-06-26 |
|
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=299689 |