Clinton hopes North Korea's Kim will chart different course | WPN World People News

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday that North Korea's new leader, Kim Jong-un still had a chance to change and become a "transformative leader".

Clinton said Kim Jong-un could go down in history if he helps his people emerge from poverty and isolation and hoped the 29-year-old would choose to bring the North into the 21st century and spend money on food, education, and health care instead of implements of war.

She warned that if he continued the Communist nation's existing policies, it would lead to its demise.

"He can continue the model of the past and eventually North Korea will change, because at some point people cannot live under such oppressive conditions -- starving to death, being put into gulags and having their basic human rights denied," Clinton said.

"We are hoping that he will chart a different course for his people."

Kim Jong-un took over as North Korean leader in December, after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il.

Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta held talks Thursday with South Korea's foreign and defense ministers.

The US and South Korea urged North Korea to end "provocative behavior" and pledged a united front if North Korea carries out a new nuclear test.

Pyongyang had in April defiantly fired a rocket that the United States and South Korea believed was a veiled, albeit failed, missile test.

The United States has stationed around 28,000 troops in South Korea.

source: North Korea News.Net