World powers say North Korea should be punished

Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations Wang Guangya speaks to the media. Picture / Reuters

UNITED NATIONS - China, North Korea's most important ally, joined other world powers today in calling for a tough response to the reclusive communist state's announcement of a nuclear weapons test.

China and Russia, which both border North Korea, met with other veto-holding members of the UN Security Council to discuss a range of sanctions proposed by the United States and Japan to pressure Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program.

Beijing's UN Ambassador, Wang Guangya, told reporters: "I think that there has to be some punitive actions." But he did not say which of the US-proposed sanctions he would support.

"We need to have a firm, constructive, appropriate but prudent response to North Korea's nuclear threat," Wang added.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin also urged the international community to act together to deter North Korea from its nuclear ambitions.

In a double interview with German ARD state television today, Merkel said the case of Iran had shown that the international community was more effective in coping with such problems when united than when riven with disagreement.

"The world is growing closer together, and hence the various countries need to act together closely (on North Korea)," Merkel said a day after North Korea said it had conducted an underground nuclear test.

Putin, currently on a visit to Germany, agreed, but was reluctant to say whether sanctions should be applied.

"We need to move from talk of ultimatums and sanctions towards seeing international law prevail in international matters," he said, speaking through an interpreter.

In Moscow, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov called the reported test a "colossal blow" to the nonproliferation regime but, like China, insisted an eventual UN resolution should not involve the use of force. No one at the United Nations has proposed this.

"For us that is very important ... imagine if there was military action on the territory of North Korea ... North Korea has borders with three countries, and one of them is Russia," Ivanov told reporters.

The United States, France and Britain, the three other permanent council members, agreed that tough measures were needed fast, despite the fact that only Russia has said the evidence available confirms a nuclear blast actually occurred.

No council vote has been scheduled and no deal has been reached on an array of weapons-related and financial sanctions. Japan's UN Ambassador Kenzo Oshima, this month's council president, and US Ambassador John Bolton said negotiations had made progress but differences remained.

"We don't have complete agreement on this yet, but we're making progress," Bolton said.

"Life and death"

In Brussels, a visiting North Korea legislator defended the tests, saying, "Our country has been under severe sanctions and threats by the United States for more than 60 years.

"We had to take measures in order to obtain a nuclear deterrent against the Americans," said Ri Jong-hyok, adding that it was a "matter of life and death."

The White House has repeatedly raised doubts about the strength of North Korea's nuclear program and today sought to play down the significance of its reported test. Spokesman Tony Snow said it would take more time to come to a conclusion on whether a nuclear device had been detonated.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States was still evaluating what happened, but she said North Korea crossed "an important line" when it claimed it launched a nuclear test and the world must react.

"We have to take the claim seriously, because it is a political claim if nothing else," Rice told CNN.

Another US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the "working assumption" in the intelligence community is that it was a nuclear test that didn't go well.

In Beijing, China said it had no information on speculation that North Korea might be ready to conduct a second test.

Asked what Beijing thought of the possibility of military action, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a news conference: "I think this is an unimaginable way."

Chinese doctrine

Pyongyang's declaration was a sharp blow to Chinese President Hu Jintao's doctrine of using economic and diplomatic coaxing to persuade it to drop its nuclear ambitions.

North Korea's announcement on Monday that it had conducted an underground nuclear test followed years of diplomatic efforts to stop the unpredictable country from joining the seven other declared nuclear weapons states.

It was seen as an attempt to push the United States to end a crackdown on North Korea's illicit finances, much of it derived from missile sales, and agree to one-on-one negotiations.

Washington has insisted any negotiations with Pyongyang should be within regional six-party talks, which have, however, failed to stall Pyongyang's march to nuclear power status.

"We are still willing to abandon nuclear programs and return to six-party talks ... if the United States takes corresponding measures," South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted an unidentified North Korean official as saying from Beijing.

A United States-drafted UN resolution on sanctions calls for international inspections of cargo moving into and out of North Korea to detect weapons-related material, a provision diplomats believe may be the most controversial.

The draft also includes a total arms embargo, a freeze on any transfer or development of weapons of mass destruction and a ban on luxury goods.

Japan proposed even more stringent measures in amendments to the US draft, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.

These included banning all North Korean ships and planes from ports and imposing a travel ban on high-level Pyongyang officials. But diplomats doubted they would be approved.

Japan effectively froze remittances and transfers to North Korea by those suspected of links to development of unconventional weapons after missile tests by Pyongyang on July 4.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, vowed to review his "sunshine policy" of engagement with the North after commentators slammed him for being too soft. One declared the country was now in its worst crisis since the Korean War more than half a century ago.

Prime Minister Tony Blair, asked by the BBC how worried people should be said: "We should be very worried."

"The other tragedy about North Korea is what is happening to the people there," he said. "The people live in virtual starvation, almost a form of political oppression that's akin to slavery. And meanwhile they spend billions of dollars on a nuclear weapons program."

- REUTERS