N Korea dismisses ‘schoolgirl’ Clinton

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that North Korea had “no friends left” to defend it from nuclear sanctions, triggering vitriolic defiance from the Stalinist regime.

Pyongyang hurled invective at “schoolgirl” Clinton and declared disarmament talks dead, as she told Asia’s largest security forum that international efforts to squeeze the North over its atomic programme were paying off.

“They have no friends left that will protect them from the international community’s efforts to move toward denuclearisation,” Clinton told the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum (ARF) in Phuket.

“I was gratified by how many countries from throughout the region stood up and expressed directly to the North Korean delegation their concern over the provocative behaviour we have seen over the past few months.”

In Phuket, Clinton has met counterparts from China and Russia, two other ARF heavyweights that have traditionally been lukewarm about forthright action against North Korea.

North Korean delegates appeared agitated as they tried to organise a rare news conference just before Clinton was supposed to speak in the press area of a seaside hotel in the Thai resort island of Phuket.

Regime officials described Clinton’s renewed offer of a package of incentives in return for disarmament as “nonsense”, and lambasted the top US diplomat as unintelligent, a “funny lady” and a “primary schoolgirl”.

“Hearing about the comprehensive package, I should say this is basically nonsense,” roving ambassador Ri Hung-Sik said, vowing no dialogue until Washington changed its “deep-rooted hostile policy”.

“The six-party talks are already dead”, Ri added, referring to negotiations with the United States, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea which Pyongyang quit after the UN Security Council censured it for a rocket launch in April.

North Korea then conducted an underground nuclear test in May, triggering a Security Council resolution for beefed-up inspections of shipments going to and from the country and an expanded arms embargo.

Pyongyang’s state media took an even more venomous line against Clinton, who earlier this week said the North Koreans were acting out like “unruly teenagers”.

“Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping”, a foreign ministry spokesman was quoted as saying in attacking her “vulgar” remarks.

Clinton outlined possible incentives for North Korea including “significant energy and economic assistance”, but only if it agreed to “full and verifiable denuclearisation”.

“In short, our approach isolates North Korea, imposes meaningful pressure to force changes in its behaviour and provides an alternative path that would serve everyone’s interests,” she said.