John Kerry says North Korea cannot be nuclear power

Kerry, on a three-day visit to South Korea, Japan and China to find a solution to tensions on the Korean peninsula, said on Friday that Pyongyang would not be accepted as a nuclear power. If North Korea decides to fire a missile, it will be "one more unnecessary, unwanted" provocation and it would "indicate who is being provocative with an exclamation point yet again", said Kerry. "The rhetoric that we are hearing from North Korea is simply unacceptable by any standards," he told a news conference in Seoul alongside Yun Byung-se, the South Korean foreign minister.
 
"The United States, South Korea and the entire international community... are all united in the fact that North Korea will not be accepted as a nuclear power," Kerry added.
 
He said more rounds of talks with North Korea to resolve the tensions would be welcome but warned that "no one is going to talk for sake of talking".
 
'Nuclear flames'
 
Earlier, Yun said he had a "very progressive" meeting with Kerry and that five positions regarding North Korea had been agreed but he did not give details of those positions. "The [North Korean] threat was taken as a threat to the general public. We expect the North to comply with the South efforts to engage in dialogue," he said.
 
"The plan going ahead is to analyse what has happened today and to arrive at a definitive position."
 
Yun also said he and his guest had the opportunity to discuss the situation in Syria, climate change and other matters.
 
Meanwhile, Japan on Friday vowed it would respond to "any scenario" after a threat by North Korea that Tokyo would be "consumed in nuclear flames".
 
"All we can say is we will take every possible measure to respond to any scenario," a defence ministry official told the AFP news agency.