U.S. Envoy Says N. Korea Should Not Expect Rewards
U.S. envoy on North Korea, Glyn Davies, said Friday that Pyongyang should expect no reward for its apparent decision to cancel an expected missile launch at a time of elevated military tensions.
"I don't think we should any longer be in the business of treating the absence of bad behavior as something that needs to be rewarded," Davies told reporters after a meeting in Seoul with his South Korean counterpart Lim Sung-Nam.
A U.S. defense official said last week that two North Korean missiles -- primed for imminent test firing -- had been moved from their launch site.
U.S. and South Korean officials had been worried that any test of the medium-range Musudan missiles would trigger a fresh surge in military tensions that escalated after the North's nuclear test in February.
"On the face of it, it's a good thing that North Korea did not fire missiles," Davies said.
"But that in and of itself doesn't get us very far towards the goal that we all seek which is that North Korea gets back on the path of denuclearize," he added.
Davies was in Seoul on the first leg of a three-nation tour to discuss the North Korea nuclear issue with officials in South Korea, Japan and China.
He said all three countries and the United States agreed that North Korea needed to focus its attention on living up to its international obligations and taking concrete actions towards denuclearize.
North Korea has made it clear it has no intention of bargaining away its nuclear deterrent.
Source: Agence France Presse
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