North Korea on Friday threatened the United States and South Korea with a "physical response" to planned weekend naval exercises as tensions with the communist nation rose in the aftermath of the sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on the North.
In Vietnam for a Southeast Asian regional security forum, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and a North Korean official traded barbs over the ship incident, the upcoming military drills and the imposition of new U.S. sanctions against the North.
The spokesman for the North Korean delegation to the talks, Ri Tong Il, repeated Pyongyang's denial of responsibility for the March sinking of the ship that killed 46 South Korean sailors and said the upcoming military drills were a violation of its sovereignty that harkened back to the days of 19th-century "gunboat diplomacy."
The exercises will be "another expression of hostile policy against" North Korea.
"There will be physical response against the threat imposed by the United States militarily," Ri told reporters in Hanoi.
Shortly before he spoke, Clinton had lashed out against belligerent acts by the North, warning that it must reverse a "campaign of provocative, dangerous behavior" if it wants improved relations with its neighbors and the United States.
She said stability in the region, particularly on the Korean peninsula, depends in large part on convincing an "isolated and belligerent" North Korea to alter course and return to nuclear disarmament talks.
In Vietnam for a Southeast Asian regional security forum, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and a North Korean official traded barbs over the ship incident, the upcoming military drills and the imposition of new U.S. sanctions against the North.
The spokesman for the North Korean delegation to the talks, Ri Tong Il, repeated Pyongyang's denial of responsibility for the March sinking of the ship that killed 46 South Korean sailors and said the upcoming military drills were a violation of its sovereignty that harkened back to the days of 19th-century "gunboat diplomacy."
The exercises will be "another expression of hostile policy against" North Korea.
"There will be physical response against the threat imposed by the United States militarily," Ri told reporters in Hanoi.
Shortly before he spoke, Clinton had lashed out against belligerent acts by the North, warning that it must reverse a "campaign of provocative, dangerous behavior" if it wants improved relations with its neighbors and the United States.
She said stability in the region, particularly on the Korean peninsula, depends in large part on convincing an "isolated and belligerent" North Korea to alter course and return to nuclear disarmament talks.
