DTN News: North Korea Condemns US Sanctions, Naval Drills....NSI News Source Info # 810

(NSI News Source Info) HANOI - July 23, 2010: North Korea on Thursday condemned imminent US-South Korea naval exercises as a threat to global peace as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Vietnam for Asia-Pacific security talks.
A spokesman for the North Korean delegation at the talks in Hanoi also dismissed fresh US sanctions against the isolated regime for its alleged sinking of a South Korean warship, saying they violated a UN statement.
"Such movements pose a great threat not only to the peace and security of the Korean peninsula but also to global peace and security," the spokesman, Ri Tong Il, told reporters.
"If the US is truly interested in the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, it must take the lead in creating an atmosphere (for dialogue) rather than... staging military exercises or imposing sanctions."
The nuclear-armed North has warned of war if it is punished over the sinking of the Cheonan in the Yellow Sea in March with the loss of 46 lives, an incident that has sharply raised tensions on the peninsula.
The United States says its naval exercises starting Sunday and involving an aircraft carrier, destroyers and thousands of troops are meant as a "deterrence" against North Korean "aggression".
In Washington State Department spokesman Philip Crowley rejected North Korea's accusations that the drills were a provocation and said Pyongyang was the real threat to regional peace.
Clinton said the sanctions were designed to pile pressure on the Pyongyang leadership and not aimed at the North Korean people, "who have suffered too long due to the misguided and malign priorities of their government".
State Department officials said Clinton would ask Beijing to do more to wring change from its ally North Korea during bilateral talks with China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in Hanoi.
The two are expected to meet Friday on the sidelines of the 27-member ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the Asia-Pacific's biggest security dialogue.
Crowley has said Clinton would ask Yang to look at additional steps to pressure North Korea to stop what Clinton called its "destabilising, illicit and provocative policies".South Korea, the United States and other nations -- citing the findings of a multinational investigation -- have accused the North of sending a submarine to torpedo the ship.
http://defense-technologynews.blogspot.com/2010/07/dtn-news-north-korea-condemns-us.html