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Obama Warns N. Korea not to Launch Rocket, Visits 'Freedom's Frontier'
[An Nahar] U.S. President Barack ObamaB.O.... warned  North Korea Sunday that its "bad behavior" would be thwarted and the country would only deepen its isolation if it carried out a planned rocket launch."North Korea will achieve nothing by threats or by provocations," Obama said in a joint news conference with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak on the eve of a nuclear security summit in Seoul. Obama vowed to thwart North Korea's "bad behavior" and "pattern of provocation." Lee also said he and Obama agreed that the long-range rocket launch planned for next month would be "a provocative action that threatens global peace and is against U.N. resolutions. "President B.O. and I have agreed to respond sternly to any provocations and threats by the North and to continually enhance the firm South Korea-U.S. defense readiness," Lee said. The North has announced it will fire the rocket to put a satellite into orbit between April 12-16 to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of founding president Kim Il-Sung. Washington and Seoul say the launch would be a disguised missile test which would breach U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874 banning any ballistic missile tests by the communist state. The U.S. says a launch would also breach a bilateral deal reached just last month, offering U.S. food aid in return for a partial nuclear freeze and a missile test moratorium. But the North has insisted it has a right to launch a satellite for what it says are peaceful purposes. South Korea's defense ministry said Sunday that the North had transported the rocket's main body to a site in the far northwest of the country in preparation for the launch. Obama also visited the tense inter-Korean border Sunday, calling it "freedom's frontier." Obama is visiting South Korea to attend a 53-nation summit starting Monday on combating atomic terrorism. Posted by: Fred 2012-03-26 |
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