UNITED NATIONS, April 8 -- China today stalled efforts to obtain a Security Council statement that criticizes North Korea for refusing to submit to monitoring of its suspected nuclear weapons program by the United Nations, saying such a statement would "complicate" diplomatic attempts to resolve the standoff.
The move was a setback for the United States, France and Britain, which want the 15-nation council to pressure North Korea to abandon plans to restart a nuclear enrichment plant capable of producing fuel for nuclear explosives. It also diminished the prospects of the council's playing a central role in managing the nuclear crisis.
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Although the council will hold a meeting on North Korea's nuclear ambitions Wednesday, U.N. diplomats said substantive discussions on the issue would be dealt with outside that forum. U.S. officials met with North Korean diplomats in New York last week to discuss a meeting involving representatives of North Korea, South Korea, the United States, Russia, China and Japan.
Pyongyang sparked an international crisis last year by announcing its intention to reactivate a nuclear enrichment plant and by expelling International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors.
Under the rules of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the IAEA is responsible for ensuring that countries that do not have nuclear weapons don't divert fissile material from civilian energy programs to clandestine weapons programs. In February, the agency issued a statement declaring it was no longer able to "verify" that Pyongyang's nuclear energy programs were peaceful, and referred the matter to the Security Council.
The council's five permanent members -- the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain -- have been engaged in closed-door discussions for several weeks on the text of a statement that would fault Pyongyang for failing to meet its obligations. The latest round of talks today deadlocked as China put up strong opposition to the statement's adoption.
"We think intervention by the U.N. Security Council now cannot help resolve the North Korean nuclear issue," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said at a news conference in Beijing.
Russia backed the Chinese position. "I think it is a bad idea to condemn," Russia's U.N. ambassador, Sergey Lavrov, said today. "We are convinced that the only way you can solve North Korean Peninsula problems is through direct dialogue between the United States and North Korea."
North Korea has demanded direct talks over its nuclear weapons program with Washington, which the Bush administration has rejected. The foreign ministry in Pyongyang said it would ignore any Security Council action, and further threatened that sanctions approved by the body would be "tantamount to war."
Despite the standoff, Pyongyang has retreated somewhat from the brinkmanship that began the crisis in the three weeks since the United States started bombing Baghdad on March 20. It has not restarted its enrichment plant, which would reprocess spent plutonium into nuclear weapons fuel, nor has it tested a ballistic missile, which could serve as a delivery vehicle.
"Both sides have come to an unspoken pact: no sanctions from Washington, and no reprocessing or testing launch from North Korea," said an American observer who is quietly trying to start some private contacts, and asked not to be named.
Moon Chung In, a South Korean academic who recently went to Pyongyang to talk to North Korean officials and experts, said he sees North Korea's restraint as a sign that it still hopes for negotiations with the Bush administration.
"The bottom line is they want to have talks with the U.S. That's why they aren't crossing really important red lines. That's why they have been waiting," he said.
But he also said North Koreans expect an attack by the United States when the Iraq war is over.
"They are saying they are ready to fight if the U.S. attacks us," said Moon. "North Korea can't be treated like Iraq. The U.S. has a preponderance of power, but North Korea has the fourth-largest military in the world. They think they can defend themselves."
North Korea has recently mobilized the public in a "military first" campaign that puts the needs of its military even above efforts to improve its weak economy. And in recent days, it has increased its threats and warnings to the United States.
"The U.S. rulers are keen to perpetrate military terrorism," North Korea's official news agency said today. The agency quoted Kim Yong Chun, chief of the general staff of the North Korean army, as saying Pyongyang would hold the United States wholly responsible if dialogue failed to defuse the crisis. North Korea "will have no other option but to beef up the military deterrent force," he said.
Struck reported from Seoul. Staff writer Glenn Kessler contributed to this report from Washington.
