Clinton, North Korea insult exchange heats up

Washington Post:

The war of words between North Korea and the United States escalated Thursday, with North Korea's Foreign Ministry lashing out at Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in unusually personal terms for "vulgar remarks" that it said demonstrated "she is by no means intelligent."

Clinton, who earlier this week likened North Korea to an unruly child, has rallied international isolation of North Korea at a 27-member regional security forum here. She met with her Russian, Chinese, South Korean and Japanese counterparts -- the other key partners in suspended six-nation disarmament talks--and won strong statements of support from many delegations.

On Wednesday night, she even sent a delegation of U.S. officials to meet with diplomats from Burma, which has strained relations with Washington, to press for compliance with a U.N. Security Council barring exports of North Korean arms and missiles. The resolution was passed after North Korea detonated a second nuclear device. On Thursday, Burma announced it would comply.

"There is no place to go for North Korea," Clinton told reporters after reading a nearly seven-minute statement outlining U.S. policy on North Korea. "They have no friends left."

North Korean officials are also attending the conference hosted by the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) on this resort island. In a somewhat comical scene, North Korean officials, guarded by a half-dozen grim-looking security guards, showed up a news conference venue that had been set up for Clinton, who as usual was running late. Though North Koreans had booked the space, they stalked away to a nearby hallway to meet with reporters and denounce the United States.

"The six-party talks are over," spokesman Ri Hung Sik said, because of the "deep-rooted anti-North Korean policy" of the United States. North Korea rarely holds media events, so the decision to speak to reporters is significant.

Clinton and other U.S. officials said the North Korean delegation made similarly belligerent statements at the conference. "Unfortunately the North Korean delegation offered only an insistent refusal to recognize that North Korea has been on the wrong course," Clinton said. "In their presentation today they evinced no willingness to pursue the path of denuclearization and that was troubling."

The Foreign Ministry statement attacking Clinton also amply demonstrated the North Korean mood. "We cannot but regard Mrs. Clinton as a funny lady as she likes to utter such rhetoric, unaware of the elementary etiquette in the international community," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said, according to North Korean media. "Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping."

The fit of pique was apparently inspired by an interview Clinton gave ABC News while visiting New Delhi.

"What we've seen is this constant demand for attention," Clinton said. "And maybe it's the mother in me or the experience that I've had with small children and unruly teenagers and people who are demanding attention -- don't give it to them, they don't deserve it, they are acting out."

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It appears that one of the new meanings of "smart diplomacy" is acting parental. But that means in this case having to endure smart mouth responses from the belligerent "child." I have to admit it is pretty "Hilarious" to see North Korea lecturing anyone on diplomatic niceties.