President Barack Obama put North Korea and Iran on notice as he spoke
here Monday, reiterating his vision for a world free of nuclear weapons
as he stressed that the international community will stand tough
against those countries that violate its norms.
“In global
response to Iran and North Korea’s intransigence, a new international
norm is emerging,” Obama said at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.
“Treaties are binding. Rules will be enforced. And violations will have
consequences. Because we refuse to consign ourselves to a future where
more and more regimes possess the world’s most deadly weapons.”
The president’s speech comes at the start of the
two-day Nuclear Security Summit here in South Korea, where the focus is
on efforts by 50 or so nuclear powers in attendance to protect their
radioactive materials. While he did herald the success of the first
summit on the issue, which he hosted two years ago in Washington, Obama
focused much of his speech here on the neighbor to the north.
