North Korea faced united condemnation of its missile tests at the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, with the United States and Japan pressing for a strong response to the launch of seven missiles in 24 hours.
In an emergency session convened after North Korea launched the missiles, including a long-range weapon that failed seconds after lift-off, Japan asked Security Council members to endorse a call for Pyongyang to halt missile development and its nuclear programme.
The draft resolution also urged North Korea to return to six-party negotiations without pre-conditions.
”We hope that the response of the council will be swift, strong and resolute,” said Kenzo Oshima, Japan’s ambassador to the UN.
Among the measures sought by Japan were a ban on the transfer of technology and funds that could contribute to North Korea’s missile programme or other weapons of mass destruction.
Japan has already imposed sanctions on North Korea, cancelling a weekly ferry and charter flights and South Korea said it would withhold 500 000 tonnes of rice Pyongyang had sought this year.
In Washington, Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State, warned Pyongyang could face further penalties for defying warnings against missile tests.
”The international community does have at its disposal a number of tools to make it more difficult for North Korea to engage in this kind of brinksmanship and to engage in the continued pursuit of its nuclear weapons programmes,” she told reporters.
But hopes of maintaining a tough and united front to what the Bush administration has described as a ”provocation” were tempered by the awareness that there was limited support for the ultimate censure — a Security Council resolution — from Russia and China.
As North Korea’s ally and neighbour, China has led international negotiations aimed at resolving North Korea’s nuclear stand-off. The latest provocation is a slap in the face for the China’s Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao, who last week warned North Korea not to raise tension in the region.
In a statement from Beijing, China called on all sides to maintain restraint, and avoid actions that would ”add to tensions and further complicate the situation”.
However, Wang Guangya, China’s ambassador to the UN, told reporters: ”If all council members feel that some appropriate action is needed by the council, we will see.”
Despite those signs of reluctance, the US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, said he believed that the security council would manage to craft a unanimous response to the missile tests, underlining North Korea’s isolation.
”I think there is support for sending a clear signal to Pyongyang, and we’ll proceed to see if we can’t get that done in the next few days,” he said.
The measured tones were a departure from the harsh rhetoric the White House has employed in the past towards North Korea. US officials said on Wednesday they believed that North Korea was trying to prod Washington into direct negotiations after six-party talks stalled last year.
North Korea has asked repeatedly for one-on-one meetings with US officials, and for the release of funds in a Macao bank frozen by the US Treasury.
Washington said it would not be drawn into a head-on confrontation. ”I view this as an opportunity to remind the international community that we must work together to continue to work hard to convince the North Korean leader to give up any weapons programs,” Bush said in his first public comments on the tests.
Wednesday’s emergency session of the Security Council was called after North Korea defied warnings from the US, Japan and China to test fire its long-range Taepodong-2 missile, as well as six Scud-like missiles.
”We think they probably intend to launch more missiles in the next day or two,” Alexander Downer, Australia’s Foreign Minister, said after a conversation with Pyongyang’s ambassador to Australia.
However, the apparent failure of the Taepodong-2 has raised questions about North Korea’s vaunted military prowess.
‘Slap in the face’ for military
The missile is thought to be able to fly over 6 700km to bring Alaska and Hawaii into range, crashed into the Sea of Japan 42 seconds after launch, according to US officials.
Analysts said the early landing was a failure, but some cautioned that North Korea could still have gained valuable data for its highly effective missile programme which has aided many countries including Iran and Pakistan.
”This is a slap in the face for North Korea’s military and there will be repercussions there,” said Professor Choi Jong-Chul at the Korea National Defence University.
”This is a setback for North Korea. Its missile card as leverage against the United States has become weaker than before as the Taepodong-2 failed,” he said.
US officials mocked the test, with White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley saying ”a missile that fails after 40 seconds is not a threat to the territory of the United States.”
But Shim Sung-Tack, a research fellow in non-proliferation at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, said the early landing could have been calculated.
”It was an intended, happy failure for North Korea as all it needed was to show an ICBM being fired from a fixed launching pad,” he said.
”It does not need to provoke the United States and face military measures by firing a Taepodong-2 near US territory as it wants direct negotiation with Washington,” he said.
The North Korean military may also benefit from the test, depending on what experiment results it wanted to obtain, said Baek Seung-Joo, chief of the North Korea Research Team of the state-run Korea Institute for Defence Analyses.
”However, as long as the range is concerned, it was obviously a failure as it flew less than a minute,” Baek said.
North Korea’s 1998 test of the Taepodong-1 sent shockwaves through Washington and Tokyo by flying about 1 500km over mainland Japan into the Pacific.
Whatever the launch’s intention, the early landing will also make the missile less attractive to potential buyers such as Iran and Syria, analysts said. An unconfirmed Japanese report said 10 Iranian missile experts were visiting the North at the time of Wednesday’s tests.
Impoverished and isolated North Korea is believed to trade missiles and missile technology for hard currency or crude oil from the Middle East.
The South Korean defence ministry’s 2004 Defence White Paper said North Korea started developing its own ballistic missiles in the 1970s.
It successfully test-fired a Scud-B missile with a 300km range in the mid 1980s and followed it up with production and operational deployment of 500km range Scud-Cs.
In the 1990s, the country test-fired a 1 300km range Rodong missile and deployed the model for operational purposes.
Bush in 2002 branded North Korea part of an ”axis of evil” alongside Iran and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, which was invaded a year later in a drive crafted by his administration’s so-called neoconservatives.
Professor Yun Duk-Min of the state-run Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security said the North’s attempt to force Washington to have direct talks with Pyongyang through the missile launch might backfire.
”The neocons in Washington have been waiting for things exactly like this to happen. They will implement hardline measures they have been preparing against Pyongyang,” he said. – Guardian Unlimited Â