US/North Korea

Clinton says communist state has "no friends left"

Article published on the 2009-07-23 Latest update 2009-07-23 14:42 TU

Kim Jong-Il in Pyongyang on 14 July (L) and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Phuket on 22 July (R)
(Photo: Reuters)

At the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum (ARF) on Thursday US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told North Korea that it has “no friends left” to help defend it against nuclear sanctions. The communist state had earlier described her as a “schoolgirl”.

“They have no friends left that will protect them from the international community’s efforts to move toward denuclearisation,” said Clinton.

North Korea had already described Clinton’s package of incentives as “nonsense”. She had described “significant energy and economic assistance”.

“North Korea has survived the last fifty years with all kinds of sanctions against them,” Noh Jong-Sun, from Yonsei University, told RFI. “So for North Koreans it is not a new thing to face."

There have been a number of attempts to persuade North Korea to forget any nuclear ambitions. But recent nuclear tests have alarmed a number of countries.

“Even the Beijing agreement of 2005 […] Article 1 said that if North Korea comprehensively, verifiably, irreversibly dismantles the nuclear weapons, then five other countries will talk about provision of a nuclear power plant in North Korea. But that never happened,” said Noh, who was speaking from Seoul.