The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously on Saturday to impose financial and weapons sanctions on North Korea for its claimed nuclear test in a resolution that Pyongyang immediately rejected.
The US-drafted resolution, which said the reclusive communist state’s action was a ”clear threat to international peace and security,” allows nations to stop cargo going to and from North Korea to check for weapons of mass destruction or related supplies.
The resolution bars trade with North Korea in dangerous weapons. It also impose bans on heavy conventional weapons and luxury goods and asks nations to freeze funds connected with North Korea’s unconventional arms programs.
North Korea’s UN ambassador, Pak Gil Yon, walked out of the council after he spoke. He accused members of ”gangster-like” action for adopting the resolution and ignoring the threat from the United States against his country.
Pak said Pyongyang considered any further US pressure a ”declaration of war.” North Korea has issued similar statements before, but this time it was before a formal audience.
Enforcement will largely depend on whether those who have traded with North Korea honour the bans, which now also have the support of neighbouring China, the closest ally of North Korea, as well as Russia.
A UN sanctions committee will distribute a list of which weapons and related supplies are banned.
US President George Bush said the resolution showed ”the world is united in our opposition to its nuclear weapons plans” and Japan’s Foreign Minister Taro Aso said North Korea had to ”take concrete measures to resolve the issue”.
China’s worries
As for North Korea’s reaction, China warned the 15 Security Council members not to provoke Pyongyang by ”provocative steps,” in particular the stopping of suspicious cargo going to and leaving North Korea to check on weapons.
Although this provision was somewhat softened at China’s request, it still authorises countries to inspect cargo, thereby putting an international imprimatur on the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative. The PSI was launched in May 2003 and encourages countries to interdict weapons from North Korea, Iran and other states of concern.
”China strongly urges the countries concerned to adopt a prudent and responsible attitude in this regard and refrain from taking any provocative steps that may intensify the tensions,” its UN ambassador, Wang Guangya, said.
In Washington, a preliminary US intelligence analysis showed radioactivity in air samples collected near the suspected nuclear test site, a US official said on Friday. But there has been no conclusive statement on the test.
US officials believe the resolution has spurred international cooperation against North Korea. To this end Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to visit Japan, South Korea and China later next week.
”We will talk about our efforts to enforce the provisions and the steps they are likely to take,” US Assistant Secretary of State Kristen Silverberg said. ”We want to see each domestic regime moving as quickly as possible to enact whatever legislation they need.”
Most of Pyongyang’s trade crosses through China, which fears a flood of refugees if the Pyongyang government collapses. North Korea also rests between China’s border and South Korea, where 25 000 US troops are stationed.
”North Korea is already very familiar with poverty,” former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung told Reuters in an e-mail interview. ”The country can also get support, at least in order to survive, from countries such as China.”
Kim, the architect of South Korea’s engagement policy with the North, blamed US policy in part for the nuclear crisis, which he said could only end if Washington held direct talks with Pyongyang, which the Bush administration rejects
The Bush administration has been urged to talk to South Korea by Russia, China and some leading Democrats.
”We have to talk not only with friends but also with enemies, if necessary,” Kim said.
US Ambassador John Bolton told the Security Council’s 15 members: ”Today we are sending a strong and clear message to North Korea and other would-be proliferators that there will be serious repercussions in continuing to pursue weapons of mass destruction.”
Next week, the Security Council begins considering sanctions against Iran for its refusal to suspend it nuclear programme. Iran’s foreign ministry said on Saturday threats of sanctions were ”psychological war” and it was more determined than ever to pursue ”the peaceful use of nuclear energy.”
Russia’s UN ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, told reporters after the vote that deliberations were made more difficult because the United States had imposed unilateral sanctions on both North Korea and Iran.
But Bolton told reporters he hoped Iran would pay attention to the North Korea resolution because deliberation on Tehran’s actions would come next.
”I’m sure they’re watching in Tehran what we do on this North Korea resolution and I hope they watch closely,” he said on Thursday. – Reuters