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CLINTON NAMES SPECIAL NKOREA ENVOY

Matthew Lee

Associated Press, February 20, 2009

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton named a special envoy for North Korea on Friday but warned the communist nation that ties with the United States will not improve unless it stops threatening South Korea.

Amid a disturbing rise in belligerent rhetoric from the North toward the South and signs it may be getting ready to test-fire a ballistic missile, she urged Pyongyang to halt "provocative and unhelpful" gestures and rejoin stalled six-nation nuclear disarmament talks.

"North Korea is not going to get a different relationship with the United States while insulting and refusing dialogue with (South Korea)," Clinton told reporters at a news conference with South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan.

"We are calling on the government of North Korea to refrain from being provocative and unhelpful in a war of words that it has been engaged in because that is not very fruitful," she said.

Clinton, who also received a military briefing on the situation along the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea and discussed broader issues such as climate change and the global economic crisis with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Prime Minister Han Seung-soo, praised Seoul for its democracy and prosperity.

(...)

Earlier, Clinton said the new U.S. special representative for North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, would work with South Korea, Japan, China and others to look at ways to get Pyongyang back to the negotiating table and deal with broader policy.

Bosworth will also deal with North Korean human rights and humanitarian issues, she said, praising him as "a capable and experienced diplomat" who will report to her and President Barack Obama.

(...) [artículo aquí]