PHUKET, Thailand - The United States and North Korea fell into an acrimonious exchange on Thursday, with the North Korean government ridiculing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as a "schoolgirl" and a "pensioner," two days after she referred to their leaders as "unruly children."

At a meeting of Southeast Asian nations here, the war of words competed for attention with Mrs. Clinton's campaign to marshal worldwide pressure on the North Koreans to dismantle their nuclear weapons program.

On Thursday, the Foreign Ministry in Pyongyang issued a statement criticizing remarks Mrs. Clinton had made earlier this week to ABC News, in which she said the best response to Pyongyang's behavior would be to ignore it, as one would a child clamoring for attention.

"We cannot but regard Mrs. Clinton as a funny lady as she likes to utter such rhetoric, unaware of the elementary etiquette in the international community," the North Korean statement said. "Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping."

North Korea said it would defend its sovereignty against an America that it accuses of aiming nuclear weapons at it.

The ill-will surfaced vividly during a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, at this Thai resort, when the North Korean delegation turned up at a hotel podium to deliver a scheduled statement.

The officials were told that Mrs. Clinton was due to speak soon, though she was running late, as she has often this week.

After huddling, they stalked away and held a press conference nearby, at which they reiterated North Korea would never return to multiparty talks with South Korea, Japan, Russia, China, and the United States, aimed at curbing its nuclear ambitions.

For her part, Mrs. Clinton said she was encouraged by the international support for pressuring Pyongyang. Even Myanmar, she said, had responded to requests by China and other countries to track a North Korean freighter this month that American officials suspect was carrying illicit cargo.

"The international community's response to North Korea's actions has been unequivocal and nearly unanimous, leading to a new consensus," Mrs. Clinton said at a news conference, during which she read out a lengthy statement restating the American policy on North Korea.

She said there was a commitment to carry out the sanctions foreseen in a United Nations Security Council resolution adopted after Pyongyang's recent arms tests. Among its measures, the resolution bans weapons shipments to North Korea and seeks to squeeze the sources of financing for its nuclear and missile programs.

Mrs. Clinton singled out China, an influential neighbor, for asking officials in Myanmar to help in dealing with the North Korean freighter, the Kang Nam 1, which was steaming toward Myanmar. The vessel eventually turned around on is own and she called China's pressure a "proximate cause."

She said she would discuss further steps in pressing North Korea with senior Chinese officials during consultations with China next week in Washington. Mrs. Clinton is co-chairing the strategic and economic dialogue with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner.

The United States has talked to China and other countries about a package of incentives, including economic and energy aid, which could be offered to North Korea in return for dismantling its nuclear program.

But even before Thursday's vitriolic statements from North Korea, American officials said they were more focused for now on inflicting pain on Pyongyang than on luring it back to the bargaining table.

"We are not interested in half measures," Mrs. Clinton said. "We have no desire to pursue protracted negotiations that will only lead us right back to where we have already been."

Mrs. Clinton said the Koreans had been intransigent in their public statements during the conference. Other senior American officials said the tone of the North's statements was openly hostile.

Still, Mrs. Clinton may have contributed to the chilly atmosphere in her remarks just before the meeting. "Maybe it's the mother in me," she said to ABC News, "the experience I've had with small children and teenagers and people who are demanding attention: Don't give it to them."





By Mark Landler, The New York Times, July 23, 2009