US and North Korea trade insults at ASEAN
Updated
At the ASEAN Regional Forum on the Thai island of Phuket, debate over North Korea's nuclear ambitions has taken on the tone of a 'schoolyard spat'.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the gathered world media that North Korea had "no friends left" in the international community to protect it from stronger sanctions and Pyongyang has become personal, calling Mrs Clinton a "schoolgirl" and a "funny lady".
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speakers: Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State; Ri Hung-Sik, North Korean ambassador
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CLINTON: "There is no place to go for North Korea, they have no friends left. that will protect them from the international communitiy's efforts to move towards de-nuclearisation. So I think it's fair to say that not only were Russia, China, Japan and South Korea very strong in making the points which they did this morning, but those points were echoed by so many of the ASEAN members and other regional partners. So the message is coming out loudly and clearly to North Korea and I don't think we've seen at all the way this will eventually develop, I think we're just at the beginning of determining how they're goign to respond."
LAM: Well, North Korea's response was colourful.
State media in Pyongyang called Mrs Clinton a "funny lady" and and questioned her intelligence.
A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said: "sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping."
Pyongyang's roving ambassador - Ri Hung-Sik - is in Phuket and dismissed Hillary Clinton's comments as "nonsense".
This is what he had to say:
RI: (translation) "We are not against having a dialogue. We were never against having a dialogue. But how can you have a dialogue with a knife at your back. Until America's deep-rooted anti-North Korea attitude is solved, the problems will continue. Because of that, the six-party talks are also over."
