North Korea has few options, U.S. says

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VIENNA, March 6 (UPI) -- The only option for North Korea to get the security it wants is to give up its pursuit of nuclear weapons, the U.S. envoy to the IAEA said from Vienna.

South Korean news agency Yonhap reported Wednesday that Seoul was monitoring North Korean behavior after Pyongyang threatened to abandon the armistice that halted the Korean War in the 1950s.

Pyongyang this week warned it would abandon the truce should U.S. and South Korean forces proceed with planned military drills.

Joseph Macmanus, U.S. envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said North Korea wasn't gaining international respect for its threatening behavior.

A North Korean test of an underground nuclear device last month was part of what Pyongyang said was its campaign against the United States.

"Its rhetoric notwithstanding, provocations will not garner it the security and status it seeks," said Macmanus.

With the support of China, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said a draft resolution presented Tuesday would break new ground in its effort to persuade North Korea to meet its international nuclear obligations.

"North Korea should begin in earnest by taking irreversible steps toward denuclearization and abandon any hope of finding acceptance or recognition, now or ever, as a nuclear-armed state," Macmanus said.