PHUKET, July 22 (RIA Novosti) - North Korea will receive international economic aid and the U.S. will improve ties with the country if it completely gives up its nuclear ambitions, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday.
"We have made it very clear to the North Koreans that if they will agree to irreversible denuclearization, the United States as well as our partners will move forward on a package of incentives and opportunities including normalizing relations," Clinton told reporters in the Thai resort of Phuket.
Clinton was speaking after a meeting with her counterparts from Russia, China, Japan and South Korea, parties to long-running disarmament talks from which Pyongyang withdrew after recent missile and nuclear bomb tests.
The communist state quit the talks and announced the restart of its nuclear weapons program after the UN Security Council condemned its April 5 long-range missile launch. The Security Council imposed tougher sanctions on the North after it conducted its second nuclear test in May.
"The path is open to them and it is up to them to follow it. Unless and until they do, they will face international isolation and the unrelenting pressure of global sanctions," Clinton said.
