U.S., Allies Seek Punitive Action Against N. Korea

By Colum Lynch and Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, July 6, 2006

UNITED NATIONS, July 5 -- The United States and its allies on Wednesday sought to impose punitive measures on North Korea for launching a series of seven missiles on Tuesday, but emphasized that diplomatic measures with the communist nation should not be abandoned.

U.S., British and Japanese officials attempted to increase pressure on North Korea through the United Nations, presenting the Security Council with the draft of a legally binding resolution demanding that the North Korean government immediately cease the development, deployment, testing and proliferation of ballistic missiles. Separately, Japan imposed limited economic sanctions on the North, including a measure prohibiting its officials, ship crews and chartered flights from entering Japan.

While Bush administration officials condemned the test-firing of the missiles on Tuesday, they played down the missiles' military importance. The one with the longest range, believed capable of reaching Alaska and possibly the U.S. West Coast, failed less than a minute after launch and fell into the Sea of Japan.

President Bush appeared to temper his response Wednesday in comments after an Oval Office meeting with President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia. "One thing we have learned is that the rocket didn't stay up very long and tumbled into the sea, which doesn't, frankly, diminish my desire to solve this problem," he said.

"There are attempts to try to describe this almost in breathless, World War III terms," said White House press secretary Tony Snow. "This is not such a situation. This is a situation in which people are working with a regime in North Korea, trying to reason with a dictator, to step back from provocative activities."

[On Thursday, North Korea's Foreign Ministry issued a statement confirming for the first time that it had test-fired missiles, calling the launch successful and part of a "routine" military exercise that was "aimed at reinforcing our self-defense capabilities."]

North Korea's two main benefactors -- China and South Korea -- as well as Russia had a somewhat muted response to the missile tests.

"We hope that all the relevant sides can remain calm and restrained and do more things which are conducive to peace and stability," Liu Jianchao, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in a statement.

China and Russia, two of the five countries on the Security Council with veto power, expressed concern that the imposition of punitive measures could derail efforts to restart stalled six-nation talks with North Korea to suspend its nuclear program. They said that it would be more appropriate to respond to North Korea's tests with a statement of concern from the president of the Security Council. Presidential statements carry less political force than a resolution because they are not legally binding.

Several observers warned that even if Beijing agreed to some form of censure, it would remain reluctant to impose tough economic sanctions out of fear that such measures could destabilize North Korea and spark a crisis on their shared border.

"I don't think China will take at this moment stronger political or economic action against North Korea," said Chu Shulong, a political science professor at Tsinghua University and expert in international security. "We Chinese believe basically, fundamentally it is not our problem, the missile launch problem. It's a problem between North Korea and the U.S., it's a problem between the DPRK and Japan, it might be a problem between North Korea and South Korea. But basically it's not a China problem." DPRK stands for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.

The draft U.N. resolution, which was formally introduced by Japan, would also require states to prevent the transfer of money, material or technology that could "contribute" to Pyongyang's ballistic missile program or advance its capacity to develop nuclear explosives or other weapons of mass destruction. And it "strongly urges" North Korea to resume the six-party talks with the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.

Japan's ambassador to the United Nations, Kenzo Oshima, told reporters after a two-hour emergency meeting of the 15-nation Security Council that the U.N. body needed to send a "swift, strong and resolute" message to North Korea that its action is unacceptable.

John R. Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the council's reaction to the missile tests highlighted North Korea's growing isolation. "No member defended what the North Koreans have done," Bolton said. "I think there is support for sending a clear signal to Pyongyang," the North Korean capital.

South Korean officials joined the United States and Japan in verbally condemning the launches, but officials in Seoul, the South Korean capital, said they were still "carefully considering" whether to follow through with threats to cut off humanitarian aid in the event of a missile launch.

Analysts and some diplomats involved in the six-nation nuclear talks said the first casualty of the missile tests might be the talks themselves. For more than six months, North Korea has resisted returning to the negotiating table, citing "sanctions" imposed late last year against financial institutions that the U.S. Treasury Department linked to suspected counterfeiting, money laundering and drug smuggling operations by the North Korean government. The missile tests, analysts and diplomats said, made the chance of a compromise deal between the key players -- the United States and the North Koreans -- less likely.

Christopher R. Hill, the Bush administration's top negotiator in the six-party talks, said that North Korea would not be offered any new incentives to suspend its nuclear weapons program.

"No one is interested in sweetening the deal," Hill said. "The question is how to get the North Koreans to come and implement their part of that deal."

Analysts said North Korea may have conducted the tests in the belief that it would not win any concessions from the Bush administration. "The U.S. has called for North Korea to return to the six-party talks, but after what the North Koreans have done, the talks have in effect fallen apart," said Terumasa Nakanishi, a North Korean expert at Kyoto University in Japan. "They have violated their promise not to escalate the situation. There is no trust left."

[South Korea media outlets on Thursday morning cited senior officials in Seoul as saying that North Korea could be preparing to launch three to five additional short- and medium-range missiles. North Korea reportedly warned local fishing vessels to stay clear of the missile testing cite until Tuesday, and intelligence data suggested possible launch preparations.]

Officials said the next moves would be determined by a blizzard of back-door diplomacy going on in Asian and European capitals and at the United Nations. Taro Aso, Japan's foreign minister, was joining Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in attempting to woo China, South Korea and European powers into a tough line on North Korea.

North Korea experts said the options for the Bush administration remain limited, particularly if the Chinese and South Koreans were reluctant to impose tough economic sanctions. Instead, many said, it was more likely that Japan and the United States would seek to continue isolating North Korea by slowly tightening economic sanctions. Japanese officials, for instance, indicated they might be prepared to halt millions of dollars in remittances that are sent annually to North Korea from Koreans living in Japan.

Diplomats and analysts have speculated that North Korea may have conducted the missile tests in the hope of winning concessions similar to those offered by the Bush administration to Iran in an effort to stop its nuclear program.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said North Korea's strategy was irrelevant. Referring to the tests, he said: "No matter what their intention might be, there is nothing positive they can gain."

Faiola reported from Tokyo. Correspondent Maureen Fan in Beijing, staff writers Michael Fletcher and Robin Wright in Washington and special correspondents Akiko Yamamoto in Tokyo and Joohee Cho in Seoul contributed to this report.