U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Wednesday that North Korea will face “consequences” because of its “provocative and belligerent” actions that include threatened military attacks against U.S. and South Korean warships. “North Korea has made a choice. It has chosen to violate the specific language of the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718. It has ignored the international community. It has abrogated the obligations it entered into through the six-party talks. And it continues to act in a provocative and belligerent manner toward its neighbors,” Clinton said at the State Department. “There are consequences to such actions. In the United Nations, … discussions are going on to add to the consequences that North Korea will face coming out of the latest behavior, with the intent to try to rein in the North Koreans and get them back into a framework where they are once again fulfilling their obligations and moving toward denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Clinton told reporters after meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit. “I'm very pleased that we have a unified international community, including China and Russia, in setting forth a very specific condemnation of North Korea and then working with us for a firm [Security Council] resolution,” Clinton said. The top U.S. diplomat underscored the U.S. commitment to defend South Korea and Japan following Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests this week. “That is part of our alliance obligation, which we take very seriously,” she said. However, Clinton was hopeful that North Korea would return to stalled six-country nuclear disarmament talks “and that we can begin once again to see results from working with the North Koreans toward denuclearization that will benefit, we believe, the people of North Korea, the region, and the world.”
