US demands global response against North Korea
Sunday, 6 June 2010
SINGAPORE, June 5 (AFP): The United States (US) Saturday said the world must hold North Korea to account over the sinking of a South Korean warship, as Seoul appealed for UN intervention.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Washington was looking at fresh steps against North Korea and called for a unified global response after Pyongyang's alleged torpedo attack on the Cheonan.
"The international community can and must hold North Korea accountable," Gates said after meeting his South Korean and Japanese counterparts in a show of unity at a conference in Singapore.
The United States "is assessing additional options" against the North, apart from the UN Security Council route and planned military exercises with South Korea, Gates said earlier in a speech.
He did not specify what the new punitive measures might be but, in an apparent message to China, warned of the risks of inaction after North Korea's alleged torpedo attack on the ship in March that killed 46 South Korean sailors.
"To do nothing would set the wrong precedent," Gates said at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue on Asian security.
His remarks appeared aimed at China, an ally of North Korea that was slow to react to the incident and has yet to accuse Pyongyang of sinking the Cheonan.
South Korea on Friday formally asked the UN Security Council to respond to the sinking, after President Lee Myung-Bak called the attack on the corvette a "military provocation".
Addressing the same conference in Singapore, Lee dismissed Pyongyang's denials of involvement as "laughable" but he stopped short of calling for specific sanctions on the North.
Gates said "the United States stands by and steadfastly supports" South Korea but avoided talk of any US or allied military response.
The South Korean and US navies were scheduled to hold a joint anti-submarine drill next week, as a show of force against North Korea.
But the exercise has been postponed, South Korean officials said Friday, and Gates suggested a delay would allow time for UN diplomacy to play out.
Meanwhile, AP from Singapore adds: South Korea's leader Saturday ruled out going to war with North Korea, hours after his government asked the United Nations to punish the communist nation over the sinking of a warship.
"There is absolutely no possibility of a full-scale war on the Korean peninsula," President Lee Myung-bak told a group of businesspeople in Singapore. The meeting was closed to the media, and the comments were posted by Lee's spokesman, Park Sun-kyu, on the presidential website.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Washington was looking at fresh steps against North Korea and called for a unified global response after Pyongyang's alleged torpedo attack on the Cheonan.
"The international community can and must hold North Korea accountable," Gates said after meeting his South Korean and Japanese counterparts in a show of unity at a conference in Singapore.
The United States "is assessing additional options" against the North, apart from the UN Security Council route and planned military exercises with South Korea, Gates said earlier in a speech.
He did not specify what the new punitive measures might be but, in an apparent message to China, warned of the risks of inaction after North Korea's alleged torpedo attack on the ship in March that killed 46 South Korean sailors.
"To do nothing would set the wrong precedent," Gates said at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue on Asian security.
His remarks appeared aimed at China, an ally of North Korea that was slow to react to the incident and has yet to accuse Pyongyang of sinking the Cheonan.
South Korea on Friday formally asked the UN Security Council to respond to the sinking, after President Lee Myung-Bak called the attack on the corvette a "military provocation".
Addressing the same conference in Singapore, Lee dismissed Pyongyang's denials of involvement as "laughable" but he stopped short of calling for specific sanctions on the North.
Gates said "the United States stands by and steadfastly supports" South Korea but avoided talk of any US or allied military response.
The South Korean and US navies were scheduled to hold a joint anti-submarine drill next week, as a show of force against North Korea.
But the exercise has been postponed, South Korean officials said Friday, and Gates suggested a delay would allow time for UN diplomacy to play out.
Meanwhile, AP from Singapore adds: South Korea's leader Saturday ruled out going to war with North Korea, hours after his government asked the United Nations to punish the communist nation over the sinking of a warship.
"There is absolutely no possibility of a full-scale war on the Korean peninsula," President Lee Myung-bak told a group of businesspeople in Singapore. The meeting was closed to the media, and the comments were posted by Lee's spokesman, Park Sun-kyu, on the presidential website.