LEAD) U.S. repeats calls on N. Korea to halt provocations, return to six-way talks

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(ATTN: ADDS White House spokesman's remarks in paras 7-8)
By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, May 27 (Yonhap) -- The United States Wednesday repeated calls for
North Korea to refrain from provocative actions and return to the six-party talks
on ending its nuclear ambitions.

"We call on North Korea to refrain from these kinds of provocative statements,"
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said. "And we call on them to uphold their
commitments and abide by their international obligations."
North Korea detonated its second nuclear device Monday in defiance of U.N.
Security Council resolutions banning any nuclear and ballistic missile tests by
the reclusive, communist state.
The detonation comes about one month after the council sanctioned three North
Korean firms for their involvement in the trading of weapons of mass destruction
following the North's April 5 rocket launch.
Pyongyang threatened to boycott the six-party talks, restart its disabled nuclear
facilities and conduct further nuclear and missile tests unless the council
apologizes for the sanctions.
The 15-member council is deliberating how to impose further sanctions.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs also demanded that Pyongyang come back to the
six-party talks.
"I think their actions would be better focused on living up to their rights and
obligations," Gibbs told a daily news briefing. "Threats won't get North Korea
the attention it craves. Their actions are continuing to further deepen their own
isolation from the international community and from the rights and obligations
that they themselves have agreed to live up to."
Kelly would neither confirm nor deny the reports that Pyongyang has restarted its
nuclear facilities, idled under a six-party deal that calls for the North's
denuclearization in return for hefty economic aid and political and diplomatic
benefits.
"I just am not going to comment on something that's just a report at this time,"
he said. "I'll just say again that they should refrain from any provocative
action -- and clearly, restarting a nuclear reactor would be a provocative action
-- and uphold the commitments that they've made."
Kelly reiterated the U.S. commitment to the defense of South Korea when asked
about Washington's response to the North's threat to attack South Korea if any
North Korean vessels are searched or seized by the U.S.-led anti-proliferation
efforts.
"You know, obviously we take our relationship with South Korea very seriously,
our commitments to their security very seriously," he said. "But I'm not going to
respond to each statement coming out of Pyongyang."
South Korea announced Tuesday that it will join the Proliferation Security
Initiative in response to North Korea's nuclear test, although it has been
reluctant to join the international consortium of 95 countries searching and
seizing vessels and airplanes, mainly of North Korea and Iran, suspected of
carrying weapons of mass destruction.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet with President Barack Obama
later in the day to discuss the North's nuclear test and the drafting of a
resolution against the test at the United Nations, Kelly said.
"She does have a meeting with the president today," Kelly said. "I wouldn't go
into the details of the agenda, but I'm sure that North Korea will come up."
hdh@yna.co.kr
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