Washington, October 21: The United States will never have normal, sanctions-free ties with a nuclear-armed North Korea, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday, rebuffing Pyongyang’s hopes to be accepted as a nuclear state.
While repeating the U.S. readiness for bilateral talks with North Korea, Clinton said in a speech the United States would not relax its sanctions on Pyongyang until it takes verifiable, irreversible steps toward complete denuclearization.
“Current sanctions will not be relaxed until Pyongyang takes verifiable, irreversible steps toward complete denuclearization,” Clinton said in a speech hosted by the United States Institute for Peace think tank.
“Its leaders should be under no illusion that the United States will ever have normal, sanctions-free relations with a nuclear-armed North Korea,” she added. “We are prepared to meet bilaterally with North Korea. But North Korea’s return to the negotiating table is not enough.”
The United States hopes a bilateral dialogue may bring North Korea, which carried out its second nuclear test in May, back to wider talks on abandoning its nuclear programs.
The six-party talks involve the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States but have been stalled since North Korea said six months ago it was quitting them.
—Agencies