We'll make sanctions hurt, vows US

AFP, AP
Oct. 11, 2006

THE US is pushing for UN sanctions so severe they will make dictator Kim Jong-il "rue the day" he ordered his country's first nuclear test explosion, the State Department's point man on North Korea said yesterday.

"We're talking about really making it hurt," US Assistant Secretary of State for Asian Affairs Christopher Hill said of the sanctions being sought by Washington at the UN.

The new US-proposed sanctions included a trade ban on military and luxury items, the power to inspect all cargo entering or leaving North Korea and freezing assets connected with its weapons programs.

The sanctions document says the US wants the resolution to fall under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which deals explicitly with threats to international peace and security, as well as acts of aggression.

Chapter 7 grants the Security Council the authority to impose a range of measures that include breaking diplomatic ties and imposing economic and military sanctions to taking military action.

The council was to meet again overnight to discuss the crisis, but China declined yesterday to state clearly if it supported or opposed sanctions against North Korea for testing a nuclear weapon.

"China, along with other members of the Security Council, will continue to exchange opinions as to what the next steps are to take," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said.

But Mr Hill expressed confidence that China, North Korea's neighbour and biggest trading partner, would back a strong sanctions regime despite its stiff opposition to such moves in the past. "This is not a US problem," Mr Hill said, noting that China was "clearly upset" over the announced nuclear test.

He said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was "up half the night" talking to her counterparts from China as well as Russia, South Korea and Japan - the nations that have been trying to negotiate with North Korea over its nuclear program for the past year.

"Nobody is supporting North Korea," Mr Hill said.

China's UN ambassador, Wang Guangya, said he was ready to discuss "how the council should react constructively and prudently with regard to this challenge", but he held out hope that there could still be negotiations with the North.

Mr Hill said it would still take "a couple of days" to confirm whether seismic activity noted in a remote part of North Korea on Monday was the nuclear test explosion Pyongyang claims to have carried out.

But he said Washington was proceeding on the assumption that "North Korea did what it said it was doing, that is, making a nuclear test", and would press ahead with tough UN sanctions aimed at convincing Pyongyang to give up its nuclear ambitions and return to multilateral negotiations.

Mr Hill expressed confidence the UN Security Council would move far beyond "an angry letter to Kim Jong-il" and "take measures to impede his ability to get the technology and the financing for these weapons of mass destruction." He said: "I'm telling you, he is going to really rue the day that he made this decision.

"We're not going to accept that North Korea, with its starving population, is going to join the nuclear club.

"We're going to work very hard to make sure North Korea understands the cost of this."

One of Washington's key concerns is that North Korea's cash-strapped Government will be tempted to sell nuclear weapons or related technology to other renegade states or terrorist groups.

Mr Hill said the sanctions package being pushed by Washington would also make it "very, very difficult and very costly" for North Korea to pursue its program to develop weapons.

AFP, AP