UN delays North Korea vote after new threat

SEOUL - North Korea has threatened to take "stronger physical actions" after Japan imposed punitive measures in response to this week's barrage of missile tests and pushed for international sanctions at the United Nations.

Japan introduced a draft UN Security Council resolution on Friday that would bar missile-related financial and technology transactions with North Korea, but China and Russia, which have veto power, opposed any punitive measures.

Ambassadors from Japan, France and the United States said no vote would be held until Monday at the earliest. Japan had pushed for a vote today.

"Some delegations have asked the co-sponsors not to vote on Saturday or Sunday," said French ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, the current council president.

"It was decided that there would be no vote during the weekend."

Chinese UN Ambassador Wang Guangya said earlier that if the draft were put to a vote "there would be no unity" in the council in sending a message to North Korea. He would not say whether Beijing would use its veto to kill the resolution or abstain and let the measure go through.

"All possibilities are on the table," Wang told reporters.

Senior US diplomat Christopher Hill, fresh from discussing the crisis with Chinese officials in Beijing, told reporters in Seoul on Saturday:"We made very clear our very deep concerns about what is going on in the DPRK (North Korea) and called upon the Chinese, to understand that we would be much more effective if we could speak with one voice.

"The Chinese made it very clear they have no interest whatsoever in the DPRK developing its missiles and engaging in missile launches," Hill said.

Japan's revised UN draft says that no nation should procure missiles or missile related "items, materials goods and technology" from North Korea, or transfer financial resources to the isolated Stalinist state's dangerous weapons programmes.

China has used its veto only four times in the Security Council, all on issues related to Taiwan. Analysts say Beijing does not want action that could risk bringing down the Pyongyang government and sending refugees swarming across their border.

In another sign of diplomatic differences, South Korea, which also fears a catastrophic collapse of the secretive state, said it would hold ministerial talks with the North as scheduled next week. They would be the first high-level contact with Pyongyang since the tests on Wednesday.

Japan has banned a North Korean ferry from entering its ports for six months as part of a package of initial sanctions, which brought a new threat from North Korea on Friday.

"This may force us to take stronger physical actions," Kyodo news agency quoted Song Il-ho, North Korea's ambassador in charge of diplomatic normalisation talks with Japan, as saying.

US President George W. Bush said on Friday diplomacy on North Korea was "slow and cumbersome" and would take more time.

Bush, who previously has said the United States will keep the military option open when it comes to North Korea, refrained from repeating that standard phrase when asked about it during an hour-long news conference.

But he did say it was time to set "red lines," meaning actions which the international community would not tolerate and which would prompt international action against Pyongyang.

North Korea would consider sanctions against it a declaration of war, its deputy UN ambassador was quoted late on Friday.

North Korea has vowed to carry out more launches and has said it will use force if the international community tries to stop it.

But the impoverished state, which experts say has enough nuclear material to make nine atomic bombs, does not have a second Taepodong-2 missile on a launch site, a US defence official said on Friday, countering reports that Pyongyang might have moved a long-range missile into place.

"If you are asking me if there's another Taepodong-2 that's on a launch pad somewhere ... no," the official said on condition of anonymity.

North Korea has for years been trying to draw Washington into direct talks, seeking a grand deal to end the technical state of war on the peninsula that has persisted since the 1950-53 Korea War ended in an armed truce instead of a peace treaty.

But Bush said on Friday he was "not going to be caught in the trap of sitting at the table alone."

Bush wants North Korea to resume six-party talks with Russia, China, the United States, Japan and South Korea aimed at persuading the North to abandon its nuclear programmes in exchange for aid and security guarantees.

In February, 2005, North Korea said it possessed nuclear weapons. Since then, it has threatened several times to bolster its nuclear arsenal to counter what it sees as US hostility.

- REUTERS