Bolton: Japan's N. Korea Draft Has Support

Kenzo Oshima, Japan's United Nations ambassador, talks to the press after Security Council consultations Wednesday July 5, 2006, as U.S. Ambassador John Bolton listens at left. Japan said Wednesday it was considering calling for sanctions against North Korea in a U.N. resolution condemning a series of missile tests by the reclusive communist nation. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) (Seth Wenig - AP)

UNITED NATIONS -- A Japanese-backed draft resolution to sanction North Korea for its series of missile launches has "broad and deep support," despite some differences in the U.N. Security Council, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said Thursday.

Yet Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador told The Associated Press that Moscow would not back sanctions, as the resolution calls for. Instead, Russia wants the council to pass a nonbinding presidential statement with the goal of getting North Korea back into six-party talks on its nuclear program.

"No, we don't think that sanctions is the instrument, the leverage which is to be employed right now and right here," Konstantin Dolgov told the AP.

It remained unclear how serious the division were or whether they would stall diplomats' efforts for quick council action on North Korea for its missile launches.

Bolton said he was encouraged that all sides _ including China and Russia _ were united in their condemnation of the launches.

"There may be a disagreement at the moment over the vehicle that we use here in the council, but no one speaks in favor of North Korea, no one takes the North Korean line," he said. "I must say that the text of the Japanese resolution has broad and deep support."

On Wednesday, Japan, the U.S. and Britain pressed the U.N. Security Council to slap economic sanctions on North Korea for the series of missile test-launches, but ran into immediate opposition from Pyongyang allies Russia and China, who insisted diplomacy was the only way to resolve the crisis.

Japan later circulated a resolution that would ban any country from transferring funds, material and technology that could be used in North Korea's missile and weapons of mass destruction programs.

In closed consultations Wednesday, Russia and China made clear their distaste for a resolution, which could be legally enforceable.

Chinese President Hu Jintao urged calm and restraint in a telephone conversation with President Bush, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

Both China and Russia say the chief goal must be getting North Korea to return to six-party talks on its nuclear program. What remains to be seen is whether they would use their vetoes as permanent members of the council to sink a resolution or simply abstain.

"Strong reaction, strong message, clear message, yes," Dolgov said. "But we should be realistic because (a) very important element for us, and the guiding principle, is not to endanger peace and security and stability in the region, and not to foreclose the prospects for six-party talks."

Bolton said Chief U.S. nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill was on his way to Beijing to discuss the possibility of reviving six-party talks over North Korea's nuclear program

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Associated Press reporter Edith M. Lederer contributed to this story.