Doubts Build at U.N. on North Korea Resolution
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UNITED NATIONS — Diplomats at the United Nations voiced doubts last night whether the U.N. Security Council could unite quickly behind a meaningful, binding resolution on North Korea before it beats them to the punch and reports a second nuclear test.
Members of the U.N. Security Council wondered aloud about an erosion in the council’s authority. Soon after the council issued a warning to North Korea last week, Pyongyang announced it had tested a nuclear device.Yesterday, the country said in a statement that if the council passed a new resolution, it would be viewed as an act of war.
“We will take countermeasures,” the North Korean ambassador to the United Nations, Pak Gil Yon, told reporters yesterday.
He declined to say whether such measures would include a second nuclear test. But when asked about international doubts about the magnitude of last week’s reported test, he said, “All I know is the test was successful.”
Two diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity told The New York Sun yesterday that Moscow and Beijing see North Korea’s threats as a hint that Pyongyang might launch its own “preventive military action,” which “could lead to a regional war.”
Another diplomat said North Korea might test a uranium-enriched device as soon as this weekend. He said last week’s test was most likely a plutonium device.
While America, Britain, and Japan urged the council to pass a resolution as early as Friday or Saturday, China and Russia requested yesterday that the council delay action on North Korea until next week.
“The council should try to respond to a nuclear test within the same week that the test occurred,” Mr. Bolton said. “I don’t think that’s too much to ask for.”
An American draft resolution would allow for the inspection of cargo ships into and out of North Korea to halt the flow of illicit materials. China raised several objections to the proposal; among them were espionage and a possible erosion of its sphere of influence as rival nations arrive to inspect Pyongyang’s ships.
One of the toughest points of contention among diplomats yesterday was Moscow and Beijing’s objections to invoking Chapter 7 of the U.N. charter, which makes the enforcement of resolutions mandatory for all member states.
The Security Council’s split on Chapter 7 led some of its members to question whether that tool — invoked when the council sees a situation as a threat to international peace and security — will ever be used.
“If you can’t say this is a threat to international peace and security, if we can’t say therefore we’re acting under Chapter 7 and we’re going to make these things binding, if you can’t do this for North Korea today, you have to wonder whether we will be able to ever use Chapter 7 again,” the British ambassador to the United Nations, Emyr Jones Parry, said after a contentious council session.
Enforcement can be accomplished through diplomatic pressure, such as sanctions. But resolutions passed under Chapter 7 can lead to military enforcement, though diplomats argue that the use of force requires a separate, dedicated resolution.
Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, China and Russia have been reluctant to invoke resolutions under Chapter 7. They have argued that the coalition forces’ use of such resolutions provided them with a legal pretext for the war, which was seen in Beijing and Moscow as illegitimate.
The American ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, said yesterday that it is “simply incorrect” to say that using Chapter 7 “somehow authorizes the use of force.”
The Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, said Chinese diplomats need more time to coax North Korea back to the negotiating table. China and Russia also asked for the inclusion of several paragraphs in the resolution that would create an “incentive” for Pyongyang to re-enter diplomatic talks.