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Last Updated: Feb 18th, 2008 - 14:39:01 |
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council agreed to vote on Saturday on a resolution imposing economic and arms sanctions on North Korea for its reported nuclear weapons test, although talks on the text continued until the last minute.
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton and other Security Council members said they expected some changes proposed by China and Russia before the vote, scheduled for Saturday morning.
In an effort to defuse the crisis, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit China, Japan and South Korea from October 17 to 22 to discuss responses to North Korea's announcement on Monday of a nuclear test. A U.S. official said Rice would also likely travel to Moscow during the trip.
She may meet Chinese, Russian, Japanese and South Korean officials in Beijing to underscore their unity in opposing a nuclear North Korea, a U.S. official said.
Bolton spoke to reporters on Friday after consultations among the 15 Security Council members, saying broad agreement by the council in the same week as North Korea's announcement was "a sign of the determination of the council in the face of this threat to move quickly."
Seeking to meet objections from China and Russia, the latest version of the U.S.-drafted resolution makes clear the measures do not include military force under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter. The resolution has never threatened force but China wanted to make sure the measure would not be used to justify military action against North Korea.
China, which is North Korea's closest ally, has strongly condemned Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions and approved many of the sanctions.
On Friday, its U.N. ambassador voiced reservations about a provision authorizing nations to search cargo going to and from North Korea for nuclear materials or ballistic missiles.
China wants the wording softened to make interdiction less mandatory in the resolution, while Russia has criticized other parts of the text.
The draft U.N. resolution would prohibit the transfer or development of weapons of mass destruction and ban sales of luxury goods to North Korea. It would freeze funds overseas of people or businesses connected with Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
It also imposes an arms embargo on heavy conventional weapons. It allows a travel ban on individuals connected with North Korea's dangerous weapons programs, and their families, if a council sanctions committee approves the names.
NORTH KOREA BLAMES WASHINGTON
North Korea remained unrepentant and blamed the United States for the international condemnation.
Washington's "hostile policy ... has gone beyond the tolerance limit and a dangerous atmosphere of confrontation reminiscent of that on the eve of war is now prevailing on the Korean Peninsula," North Korea's state news agency, KCNA, said.
Christopher Hill, the State Department's point man on North Korea, said the United States was not nervous about Pyongyang's "blood-curdling threats."
"I can assure you we can deal with these sorts of belligerent threats," he said in remarks at Washington's National Press Club. "North Korea makes threats every day of the week, including on Sundays."
One U.S. official said Washington was confident Japan and South Korea would carry out any Security Council resolution, but Rice may want to discuss how China and Russia planned to implement it.
"The Japanese and South Koreans don't need much encouragement. With the Chinese and the Russians, it's more a matter of 'trust but verify,'" a U.S. official said.
China is anxious to avoid driving the North, with its 1.2 million-strong army, further into a corner, and worries about a wave of refugees if the impoverished country were to collapse.
As the council was negotiating, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexyev reported from Pyongyang that North Korea favored returning to the six-party talks among the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.
North Korea walked out of the talks, aimed at ridding Pyongyang of nuclear arms in exchange for economic incentives, to protest financial sanctions by the United States. The talks have been on hold for almost a year.
The United States and other countries have not yet confirmed whether or not an underground nuclear test was conducted, or if conventional weapons were used, and experts said they may be running out of time to find conclusive proof.
If radioactive material does not show up in tests by as early as the middle of next week, the chances of confirming a nuclear test will begin to diminish sharply, they said.
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