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North Korea threatens 'physical response' to US moves

Hillary Clinton unveiled new US sanctions against the North to encourage it to take the necessary steps to stop nuclear development and seek real peace with South Korea.

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US secretary of state Hillary Clinton urged Asia today to enforce tough sanctions against North Korea, which hit back by threatening a ‘physical response’ to Washington's plans for joint military drills with South Korea.

"One measure of the strength of a community of nations is how it responds to threats to its members, neighbours, and region," Clinton told the 27-member ASEAN regional forum, which includes regional powers China, Japan, and Russia along with the United States, the European Union, and Canada. She was speaking in Hanoi at the Asia-Pacific's biggest security dialogue.

On Wednesday, Clinton unveiled the new US sanctions against North Korea, blamed by both Washington and Seoul for the March sinking of a South Korean warship, which killed 46 sailors and sharpened tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear programme.

The new sanctions target North Korea's ruling elite and build on earlier United Nations sanctions, which imposed broad curbs on dealings with the North in hopes of persuading it to abandon its atomic ambitions.

Clinton said it was essential that Asian nations enforce the punitive measures to encourage North Korea ‘to take the steps it must’ to stop nuclear development and seek real peace with South Korea.

"There will be a physical response to the steps imposed by the United States militarily," Ri Tong-il, a member of Pyongyang's delegation at the security forum, told reporters. The military drills, he said, violated North Korean sovereignty.

Japan waded into the crisis, announcing plans to send four maritime self-defence forces officers to the US-South Korea exercises off the west coast of the divided Korean peninsula as observers, responding to invitations from the two countries.

This will be the first time Japan's self-defence forces join a joint exercise by the United States and South Korea, a defence ministry spokesperson said.

The four officers will be aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington.

Clinton's visit to Hanoi is part of the Obama administration's broader effort to boost US engagement with Asia, in part to counter the rising influence of China.                          

Clinton said she would return to Vietnam in November for another regional summit, and that president Barack Obama would invite ASEAN leaders to a Washington summit in coming months.
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