Clinton warns North Korea against "provocative" moves
SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday warned North Korea against making provocative moves and urged it to get back to nuclear talks, adding that ties with Washington will not improve if it keeps insulting the South.
At a news conference in the South Korean capital, Seoul, she said North Korea must live up to commitments it made to dismantle its nuclear arms programme.
She also called North Korea's recent threats of missile tests provocative and unhelpful.
"(South) Korea's achievement of democracy and prosperity stands in stark contrast to the tyranny and poverty across the border to the North," Clinton said at a news conference with South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan.
"North Korea is not going to get a different relationship with the United States while insulting and refusing dialogue with the Republic of Korea," she added, using the South's formal name.
North Korea has increased its sabre-rattling in recent weeks, especially against the administration of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who cut off the free-flow of unconditional aid to the North when he took office a year ago.
On Thursday, the North accused the United States of planning a nuclear attack and said it was ready for war with South Korea.
Clinton also announced her choice of Stephen Bosworth, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, to be the U.S. envoy to negotiations on ending the North's nuclear programmes.
Bosworth will take over responsibility for the six-country nuclear disarmament talks from Christopher Hill, another senior U.S. official.
On Thursday, Clinton warned of a possible power struggle in the secretive communist state, and the possibility of a crisis over who may succeed North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, 67, who is widely believed to have suffered a stroke last August.
Kim is believed to have largely recovered from his illness but his health remains a major concern.
Talks among regional powers to try to push North Korea into giving up its attempts to build a nuclear arsenal, in exchange for an end to its pariah status and massive aid, have largely ground to a halt.
Clinton is in Seoul on the third stop of her Asia tour following weeks of increasingly angry rhetoric by the North and reports it may be preparing to test a long-range missile that is designed to reach Alaska but has never successfully flown.
She earlier met South Korean and U.S. military leaders whose troops face the North's 1.2-million-strong army, most of it positioned near the heavily fortified border that has divided the peninsula for about 60 years. There are about 28,000 U.S. troops to support the South's 670,000 soldiers.
Clinton will also meet President Lee.
(Additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz)
(Editing by Jonathan Thatcher and Dean Yates)