North Korea’s Nuclear Program Stifles Its Economy – White House

Economic development in North Korea will not progress unless Pyongyang halts its nuclear activities, the White House said after a meeting between US President Barack Obama and a Chinese delegation.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Earlier in the day, Obama met with a number of Chinese officials and China’s Special Representatives to the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue and Consultation on People-to-People Exchange.

"The President and the Chinese Special Representatives discussed the fundamental importance of demonstrating to North Korea that it will not succeed in its efforts to develop nuclear weapons and its economy simultaneously."

North Korea tested its first nuclear weapon in 2006. The tests were subject to international condemnation, and the United Nations and the United States imposed several rounds of sanctions against Pyongyang.

When Pyongyang tested its second nuclear weapon in 2009, talks on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula that North Korea was holding together with the United States, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea since 2003, came to a dead end.

The United States has been taking part in annual military exercises in the region with the participation of South Korea, which North Korea has denounced as provocations.