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And speaking of Secretary Kerry
While North Korea threatened a quote "real war" on Friday, Washington's top diplomat
urged Pyongyang to call off its highly anticipated third nuclear test and focus on bringing its
people out of isolation and poverty.
Choi You-sun has more. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says North Korea will gain nothing
but a greater potential for conflict by conducting another nuclear test.
Speaking to students in Washington Thursday, Kerry directed his audience's attention to
the severe poverty in the communist state, then called on the Kim Jong-un regime in Pyongyang
to bring itself out of isolation from the world and improve life for its people.
At a State Department briefing later in the day, Spokesperson Victoria Nuland responded
to growing speculation that the U.S. is considering re-listing the North as a state sponsor of
terrorism, saying that there was no information to be shared, and that North Korea's nuclear
activity is addressed through the six-party talk process.
While some on Capitol Hill have proposed that Pyongyang be put back on the list, after it
was removed from the list in 2008, it seems likely that the matter will, at most, be used
to put political pressure on the North to call off the nuclear test.
The State Department spokesperson, however, did hint at the possibility of various countermeasures,
in addition to UN sanctions, should North Korea test its nuclear capability.
"Obviously, we don't take anything off the table, we never do. But we are focused on
the path laid out in UN Security Council Resolution 2087, which is to continue to exert economic
pressure."
In Seoul, the Finance Ministry on Thursday added four North Korean individuals and six
entities to its sanctions designation, following up on the UN resolution adopted after the
North's rocket launch in December.
Choi You-sun, Arirang News.