North Korea calls Clinton vulgar, unintelligent

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US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton smiles as she leaves a press briefing during Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ministerial meeting in Thai island of Phuket.

PHUKET, (Thailand), July 23 (Reuters): North Korea has no friends left to shield it from the international community's demands that the country scrap its nuclear activities, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday.
Clinton said many nations had told a low-level North Korean delegation at a regional security meeting on the Thai island of Phuket to give up its nuclear weapons.
Speaking at a news conference, Clinton said North Korea's pursuit of its nuclear ambitions could provoke an arms race in North Asia, one of the world's most dynamic regions and responsible for a sixth of the global economy.
"Our partners in the region understand that a nuclear North Korea has far-reaching consequences for the security future of northeast Asia ... This would serve no nation's interests," she said on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).
"There is no place to go for North Korea, they have no friends left that will protect them from the international community's efforts to move toward denuclearization."
Clinton said the North Korean delegation gave no sign the country was interested in ending its nuclear program, which took center stage at Thursday's talks after Pyongyang's recent nuclear and ballistic missile tests.
North Korea, bristling at being described by Clinton this week as behaving like an unruly child, responded in kind Thursday, calling her vulgar and less than clever. The North's KCNA news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying her comments "suggests she is by no means intelligent."
"Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping," KCNA said.
Addressing foreign ministers and senior officials from Asia and Europe, Clinton said the United States would work through every avenue to persuade North Korea to eliminate its nuclear program and normalize relations with the world.
"The ASEAN Regional Forum can play an important role in achieving this outcome and for continuing to work vigorously to implement Resolution 1874," she said, referring to a U.N. Security Council measure agreed after North Korea's May 25 nuclear test.
She pointed to international cooperation in ensuring that a North Korean ship, tracked by the United States in June and July on suspicion of carrying banned arms, did not dock anywhere. It appeared headed toward Myanmar before turning around.
"The bottom line is this: If North Korea intends to engage in international commerce, its vessels must conform to the terms of 1874, or find no port," Clinton told the news conference.
Clinton gave Pyongyang a choice between more sanctions if it refuses to end its nuclear activities and benefits if it does.
"Full normalisation of relations, a permanent peace regime, and significant energy and economic assistance are all possible in the context of full and verifiable denuclearization," she said.
Ri Heung-sik, director general of North Korea's Foreign Ministry, told reporters the incentives were "nonsense."
The statement, obtained by Reuters, also said the group wanted to "overcome security threats and challenges and prevent escalation of potential conflicts." It made no direct mention of North Korea or Myanmar.
Many experts on North Korea have concluded from the reclusive state's belligerence that Pyongyang wants to be recognized as a nuclear weapons state and will not end its atomic activities.