For decades, North Korea has chosen a path of confrontation and provocation, including the pursuit of nuclear weapons. It should be clear where this path leads. We have tightened sanctions on Pyongyang. We have passed the most sweeping UN Security Council resolution to date to restrict their weapons of mass destruction activities. We will not be cowed by threats and we will continue to send a clear message through our actions and not just our words: North Korea's refusal to meet its international obligations will lead only to less security, not more.

cow这个词我们比较熟悉的是它的名词形式，在这里它做动词，解释为‘恐吓，威吓'。

Yet there is another path that can be taken. Working in tandem with our partners-supported by direct diplomacy-the United States is prepared to offer North Korea a different future. Instead of an isolation that has compounded the horrific repression of its own people, North Korea could have a future of international integration. Instead of gripping poverty, it could have a future of economic opportunity-where trade and investment and tourism can offer the North Korean people the chance at a better life. And instead of increasing insecurity, it could have a future of greater security and respect. This respect can not be earned through belligerence, it must be reached by a nation that takes its place in the international community by fully living up to its international obligations.

in tandem这个词组的意思是together or in conjunction，其实tandem这个词本意是那种双人自行车，所以大家就很好理解它的含义啦。

So the path for North Korea to realize this future is clear: a return to the Six-Party Talks; upholding previous commitments, including a return to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; and the full and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. And full normalization with its neighbors can also only come if Japanese families receive a full accounting of those who have been abducted.

These are all steps that can be taken by the North Korean government.