North Korea a "Serious Threat" to US: Panetta

North Korea is a "serious threat" to the United States and Washington must be prepared to deal with it, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned Tuesday after Pyongyang conducted a nuclear test.

Published

4 months ago

Categories

US, World

Topics

Military, Nuclear Nonproliferation, US Politics, United States, Asia

People

Leon Panetta

Places

Iran, United States of America, North Korea

Transcript

SHOTLIST: WASHINGTON, FEBRUARY 12, 2013, SOURCE: CBS **RESTRICTIONS: NO RESALE for non-editorial purposes No Japan No Free over the air broadcasters in Australia No US cable news outlets, free over the air networks or stations, their websites and their mobile phone services SOUNDBITE 1 Leon Panetta (man), outgoing US Secretary of Defense (English, 20 sec): "We're going to have to continue to deal with rogue states, like Iran and North Korea. We jut saw what North Korea has done these last few weeks with a missile test and now a nuclear test. They represent a serious threat to the United States of America and we've got to be prepared to deal with that." - Panetta arriving and leaving ----------------------- AFP TEXT STORY NKorea-military-nuclear-weapons-US-Panetta,lead-REAX N.Korea a 'serious threat' to US: Panetta WASHINGTON, Feb 12, 2013 (AFP) - North Korea is a "serious threat" to the United States and Washington must be prepared to deal with it, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned Tuesday after Pyongyang conducted a nuclear test. "We saw what North Korea has done these last few weeks with a missile test and now a nuclear test," the outgoing defense secretary said at a military farewell ceremony. "North Korea represents a serious threat to the US. We've got to be prepared to deal with that." Panetta's comments came after North Korea announced it had tested a "miniaturized" device in its third nuclear test. US intelligence confirmed that North Korea probably conducted an underground nuclear explosion with a yield of several kilotons. mra/jm/mdl