US, China struggle for unity on N Korea

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US, China struggle for unity on N Korea

 

New York (dpa) - Unity on the North Korea crisis still evaded the UN Security Council's core members Wednesday as they held back-to- back meetings and planned a further round Thursday to hammer out an agreement on sanctions against North Korea for testing a nuclear bomb, diplomats said.

 

Council members did not hold substantive discussions Wednesday on a draft resolution presented to them by the council's five permanent members and Japan in a closed-door session. The major stumbling block continued to be whether any sanctions should be enforced under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, diplomats said.

 

A Chinese diplomat said a high-ranking official from Beijing's State Council, Tang Jiaxuan, will meet President George W Bush in Washington Thursday. The White House said Tang was to meet with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and national security adviser Stephen Hadley, but would not confirm whether Bush will attend.

 

The high-level meetings will be the first between the US and China since North Korea announced it had conducted a nuclear test early Monday morning.

 

China has so far withheld support for Chapter 7 to back up sanctions against North Korea. A resolution under Chapter 7 would make sanctions binding on UN members. It is often used to authorize the use of force by peacekeepers.

 

Following Wednesday's meeting of the five permanent members - the US, China, Russia, France and Britain - the American ambassador, John Bolton, said there was no agreement on the draft.

 

"There are a number of disagreements," Bolton said. "We think the fact that North Korea has conducted a nuclear test does amount to a clear threat to international peace and security and warrants action under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter as well as a variety of strong measures."

 

"There's no agreement on all of those points, so we're continuing to press ahead and we'll have to see what further discussions entail," Bolton said.

 

In its strongest response yet to the test, the United States said it will strengthen military cooperation with Japan and South Korea, including the development of ballistic missile defence. Bush told reporters in Washington that North Korea has "opted to raise tensions in the region."

 

Bush called for the Security Council to make clear to North Korea that there will be "serious repercussions" for conducting a nuclear test.

 

US intelligence was still trying to verify Pyongyang's claim of a detonation, Bush said.

 

As the flurry of diplomatic activities continued at UN headquarters, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urged North Korea not to further escalate tensions in a message that came just hours after North Korea threatened to take physical countermeasures if pressure on it increased.

 

Annan was referring to speculation that the Stalinist government in Pyongyang was preparing a second test after the first one on Sunday, and said another test would escalate tension.

 

"The situation is already extremely difficult and North Korea should not escalate it," Annan said.

 

He said Pyongyang has underestimated the will of the international community, which has been wrestling with North Korea for more than a decade to get it to end its nuclear weapons programme.

 

"The Security Council will speak with one voice," Annan said.

 

Since the day of the test on Monday, the council has been negotiating over concrete measures, which could include ship searches to prevent nuclear technology from leaving North Korea. Proliferation is a major concern of the international community.

 

China, which could block any Security Council agreement with its veto, was wavering late Tuesday over the extent of punitive sanctions, after indicating earlier in the day that it could break with past policies and support such measures.

 

In the past, China has upheld economic ties with the impoverished country, in part to prevent the economic consequences that would spill over its border if the regime of Kim Jong Il collapsed.

 

Media reports from North Asian nations indicated Pyongyang may be planning a second nuclear test while governments in Seoul and Tokyo appeared to have adopted measures to deal with North Korea in the event it would detonate a second nuclear device.

 

Earlier Wednesday, North Korea warned the United States that if it raises pressure on Pyongyang, the communist regime would consider it a "declaration of war" and would take "physical countermeasures." The warning was made in an official statement from North Korea's Foreign Ministry.

 

In a separate statement from the North Korean foreign ministry received at UN headquarters in New York, North Korea reiterated its position that its nuclear activities were in response to US policy.

 

"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea's nuclear test was entirely attributable to the US nuclear threat, sanctions and pressure," the statement said.

 

"The DPRK was compelled to substantially prove its possession of nukes to protect its sovereignty and right to existence from the daily increasing danger of war from the US," it said.

 

It said if the US would drop its "threats ... the DPRK would feel no need to possess even a single nuke."