(2nd LD) Park calls for int’l pressure on N. Korea over nuclear ambitions
(ATTN: RECASTS throughout with comments by leaders of S. Korea and Ethiopia; CHANGES headline)
By Kim Kwang-tae
ADDIS ABABA, May 26 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Park Geun-hye called on the international community Thursday to send a clear signal to North Korea that it will have no future unless it abandons its nuclear weapons programs.
Park said North Korea’s nuclear programs should never be tolerated as it poses a serious threat to the international community as well as Northeast Asia.
"Now, the international community should be united and put pressure on North Korea to make it recognize that it has no future unless it gives up its nuclear programs,” the president said in a summit with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, according to presidential spokesman Jeong Yeon-guk.
Hailemariam vowed to make an effort to get African countries to support denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula by exercising Ethiopia's influence on the continent, Jeong said after the summit.
The Ethiopian prime minister also said his country will faithfully enforce the toughest U.N. sanctions imposed on North Korea over its fourth nuclear test and long-range rocket launch earlier this year.
Hailemariam said Ethiopia will always stand with South Korea over North Korea’s irresponsible act that could destabilize the Korean Peninsula.
The comments came as North Korea ratcheted up its charm offensive toward South Korea by repeatedly offering talks.
South Korea has spurned the North’s overtures, noting denuclearization steps should be a "top priority" in resuming dialogue.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called his country a "responsible nuclear state" in the latest sign that he would not give up nuclear programs.
The North has repeatedly pledged to boost its nuclear capability, viewing its nuclear program as a powerful deterrent against what it claims is Washington's hostile policy towards it.
Ethiopia is the first stop on Park’s swing through Africa. The trip is set to take her to Kampala and Nairobi for talks with Uganda's president, Yoweri Museveni, and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.
entropy@yna.co.kr
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