U.S. Sees Some Positive Signs From North Korea, Wants More

The U.S. State Department on Monday welcomed North Korea's recent announcement that it has no plans "at present" to carry out a nuclear test but called for concrete demonstrations that the Stalinist state is changing its hostile behavior, the Yonhap News Agency reported (see GSN, June 11).

The North for some months has been suspected of preparing to carry out its third atomic detonation, an action that would be expected to bring the nation closer to wielding a credible nuclear deterrent. It has also stepped up its hostile rhetoric toward South Korea, issuing several specific threats of retribution on officials and news organizations there for perceived slights.

The North Korean Foreign Ministry accused Seoul this weekend of trying to provoke it into conducting an atomic test but said it had no imminent plans for such an event.

"It's a good thing obviously, that they are saying better things," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said of the North's statement.

Nuland told reporters the Obama administration needed more than just words from North Korea. "We continue to call on them to fulfill their international obligations, to refrain from any provocative activity, including provocative rhetoric, with regard to their neighbors."

Pyongyang and Washington have not had any contact for some time, the spokeswoman said.

The two sides last formally met in late February to hammer out a bilateral deal that if enacted would have paused a number of North Korea's nuclear weapon-related activities in exchange for a quantity of U.S. food assistance. The accord, however, fell through when Pyongyang in mid-April attempted to send a long-range rocket into space. Though the effort failed, the United States responded by canceling the food aid, which caused the North to declare it was no longer bound by the terms of the bilateral agreement.

Nuland called on North Korea to honor its international commitments and the terms of a 2005 denuclearization agreement (Lee Chi-dong, Yonhap News Agency, June 11).