China Supports Punitive Measures on N. Korea

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UNITED NATIONS — China inched closer yesterday to the majority position at the U.N.Security Council, saying it will not block “appropriate” punitive measures against North Korea for its nuclear test. Since its apparent loss of control over its client regime, China has struggled to find a balance between sanctioning North Korea and ensuring that the power structure of the country’s dictator, Kim Jong Il, does not collapse altogether.

The Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, Wang Guangya, said yesterday that his country will not veto punitive measures against Pyongyang, as long as they are not overly restrictive. “There has to be some punitive actions, but also, I think that these actions have to be appropriate,” he said.

The council is expected to pass a tough resolution on North Korea on Friday and move on to the Iranian issue early next week. However, a powerful U.N. member nation, India, began accusing the Security Council yesterday of failing to deter countries that strive for respect by defying the international order.

“There is a catastrophic decline in the authority of the Security Council which is clear to all,” the Indian ambassador to the United Nations, Nirupam Sen, told The New York Sun.

America circulated a draft resolution to council members on Monday night that included a proposed trade ban on all weapons-related materials and luxury goods with North Korea; the resolution also calls on U.N. member states to create an inspection regime to ensure that no cargo carrying illicit material enters North Korea. Japan later suggested additional, more stringent sanctions that would tighten the inspection regime, turning it into a near blockade, complete with a travel ban on top North Korean officials. The Japanese proposal calls for any plane or ship traveling out of the country to be stopped and a ban on exports of all North Korean goods.

The harsh Japanese measures met with opposition even from some European members of the council. “We want to avoid sanctions which could affect the population, a kind of blockade,” the French ambassador to the United Nations, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, said.

And Mr. Wang appeared resistant even to applying the enforceable Chapter 7 of the U.N. charter to the resolution.

Still, a possible ban on all travel by top Pyongyang officials has “attracted support,” the American ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, said.

The North Korean ambassador, Pak Gil Yon, indicated that he was not concerned about such a ban, saying an official from Pyongyang will travel to America soon. “Another official is coming to New York to replace Mr. Han,” Mr. Pak told the Sun, referring to one of his deputies, Han Song Ryol. The draft resolution calls for a resumption of the six-party talks in Beijing, which stalled last year after Pyongyang withdrew. Yesterday, Mr. Bolton scoffed at suggestions that a travel ban would hinder the talks. “One wonders if the North Koreans don’t have their own ban on travel of high officials to go to the six-party talks,” he said. India’s Mr. Sen, meanwhile, said the nuclear test is one in a “series of events” that represent a failure of the Security Council to address major world crises. Along with Brazil, Germany, and Japan, India has argued for some time for more prominent representation on the council, which currently has five permanent members and 10 that are elected for a two-year term. “It’s about time the Security Council has to be not just reformed but reconstituted,” Mr. Sen said yesterday. Although the acquisition of nuclear weapons by new countries should be restricted, Mr. Sen said, the current powers also have to give up their weapons. “Nonproliferation and disarmament have to go hand in hand,” he said, dismissing existing arms reduction pacts. “From destroying the globe 30 times over, if you are going to destroy it only 10 times over, that’s not really disarmament,” he said.

[A strong earthquake shook northern Japan yesterday, and Japanese press outlets reported the government had detected tremors in North Korea as well, leading it to suspect Pyongyang had conducted a second nuclear test, the Associated Press reported.]


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