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Clinton Warns North Korea

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 18, 2009

TOKYO - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton talked tough on her first overseas trip as America's top diplomat, delivering a sharp warning to North Korea on Tuesday over its threat to conduct a missile test.

Clinton said North Korea's threatened missile test would harm its prospects for improved relations with the United States and other neighbors.

"The possible missile launch that North Korea is talking about would be very unhelpful in moving our relationship forward," she said, adding that if Pyongyang wants to end its isolation, it would have to act on pledges made to previous Bush administration negotiators to scale back its nuclear weapons efforts.

Clinton's first day of talks with Japanese officials to reaffirm the U.S.-Japan alliance was overshadowed by North Korea's rhetoric. Japan, too, is concerned about North Korean intentions, and its diplomats, along with envoys from the United States, China, Russia and South Korea, have been involved in the six-nation talks that were to resume later this week in Moscow.

"If North Korea abides by the obligations it has already entered into and verifiably and completely eliminates its nuclear program, then there will be a reciprocal response certainly from the United States," Clinton said.

The Associated Press

HIGHLIGHTS OF CLINTON'S TRIP

•Secretary of State Clinton also vowed to keep pressure on North Korea to resolve Japan's concerns about the status of Japanese citizens abducted by Pyongyang in the 1970s and '80s. She met with relatives of abductees at the U.S. Embassy to promise such steps.

•Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso will hold his first summit meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington next Tuesday, the first foreign leader to visit the White House in Obama's term. The Aso-Obama meeting likely will focus on financial and economic issues.

•Clinton signed an agreement Tuesday with Japan that will move 8,000 Marines off the Japanese island of Okinawa to the U.S. territory of Guam.

•The United States is reviewing its policy toward Myanmar to see if it can more effectively promote reform in the military-ruled Southeast Asian nation, Clinton said.

•Clinton, who is scheduled to visit Indonesia today and Thursday, is looking to restart the Peace Corps program there. Indonesians hope Clinton will lay the groundwork for a visit by President Barack Obama, who lived in Jakarta from 1967 to 1971.

A wire report

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