China backs plan to search North Korean ships and halt arms deals
The major powers, including the United States and China, agreed yesterday on a system to inspect suspect cargoes in and out of North Korea despite Pyongyang’s warning that it would regard such checks as an act of war.
The draft UN resolution — a response to North Korea’s nuclear test on May 25 — would also expand the arms embargo on the country and clamp down on arms-related money transfers. The full 15-nation Security Council is expected to endorse the plan as early as tomorrow.
“This sanctions resolution, if passed by the Security Council, will bite and bite in a meaningful way,” Susan Rice, Washington’s UN Ambassador, said.
China, the closest North Korea has to a powerful ally, threw its weight behind the plan after watering down some of the language on inspections. “I hope countries will endorse the text,” Liu Zhenmin, China’s UN representative, said.
The proposed resolution is a tough response by the Obama Administration as it tries to break the cycle of offering repeated concessions to North Korea in return for broken promises of co-operation.
The provision for the inspection of ships and aircraft could provide a flashpoint with the reclusive Stalinist regime in North Korea, where a succession struggle appears to be under way.
North Korea’s nuclear test was a response to a UN decision to blacklist three North Korean companies. This week the official North Korean press threatened that any attacks would be met with a pre-emptive nuclear strike.
Washington, Tokyo and Seoul are discussing a wholesale shake-up of America’s nuclear deterrence in Asia, in the wake of last month’s detonation of an atomic bomb by North Korea and rumours of chronic instability in the regime of Kim Jong Il.
The talks on nuclear deterrence are understood to have intensified after Russian intelligence reports suggested that Pyongyang may be preparing to launch a ballistic missile along with expected test-firings of various medium-range weapons.
Wallace Gregson, a senior US Defence Department official, said that America’s existing deterrence capability was now under review and that the unfolding nuclear crisis in North Korea called for an entirely new approach. “In our view we can’t continue on the course that we have been on for the last 15 years because that hasn’t been working . . . so now we need something else,” Mr Gregson said. “Japan certainly has the right to consider all available options,” he added. “The United States is concerned that we adequately reassure Japan of the full range of our security guarantees to Japan.”
The draft UN resolution was agreed by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — Britain, France, China, Russia and the US — plus the regional powers Japan and South Korea. It would put in place the most detailed system yet for inspecting aircraft and ships carrying suspect cargos into and out of North Korea.
The UN Security Council authorised cargo inspections after North Korea’s first nuclear test in 2006. The new resolution fleshes out the detail, particularly with respect to suspect ships on the high seas. The US had wanted a mandatory inspection but China softened the language so that it became a political rather than a legal commitment.
The draft resolution “calls upon member states to inspect all cargo to and from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea if the state concerned has information that provides reasonable grounds to believe the cargo contains prohibited items.
It calls on all UN member states to inspect suspect ships on the high seas. If banned material, such as arms, nuclear technology or missile components are found in the inspection, they must be seized and disposed of.
The draft UN resolution — a response to North Korea’s nuclear test on May 25 — would also expand the arms embargo on the country and clamp down on arms-related money transfers. The full 15-nation Security Council is expected to endorse the plan as early as tomorrow.
“This sanctions resolution, if passed by the Security Council, will bite and bite in a meaningful way,” Susan Rice, Washington’s UN Ambassador, said.
China, the closest North Korea has to a powerful ally, threw its weight behind the plan after watering down some of the language on inspections. “I hope countries will endorse the text,” Liu Zhenmin, China’s UN representative, said.
The proposed resolution is a tough response by the Obama Administration as it tries to break the cycle of offering repeated concessions to North Korea in return for broken promises of co-operation.
The provision for the inspection of ships and aircraft could provide a flashpoint with the reclusive Stalinist regime in North Korea, where a succession struggle appears to be under way.
North Korea’s nuclear test was a response to a UN decision to blacklist three North Korean companies. This week the official North Korean press threatened that any attacks would be met with a pre-emptive nuclear strike.
Washington, Tokyo and Seoul are discussing a wholesale shake-up of America’s nuclear deterrence in Asia, in the wake of last month’s detonation of an atomic bomb by North Korea and rumours of chronic instability in the regime of Kim Jong Il.
The talks on nuclear deterrence are understood to have intensified after Russian intelligence reports suggested that Pyongyang may be preparing to launch a ballistic missile along with expected test-firings of various medium-range weapons.
Wallace Gregson, a senior US Defence Department official, said that America’s existing deterrence capability was now under review and that the unfolding nuclear crisis in North Korea called for an entirely new approach. “In our view we can’t continue on the course that we have been on for the last 15 years because that hasn’t been working . . . so now we need something else,” Mr Gregson said. “Japan certainly has the right to consider all available options,” he added. “The United States is concerned that we adequately reassure Japan of the full range of our security guarantees to Japan.”
The draft UN resolution was agreed by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — Britain, France, China, Russia and the US — plus the regional powers Japan and South Korea. It would put in place the most detailed system yet for inspecting aircraft and ships carrying suspect cargos into and out of North Korea.
The UN Security Council authorised cargo inspections after North Korea’s first nuclear test in 2006. The new resolution fleshes out the detail, particularly with respect to suspect ships on the high seas. The US had wanted a mandatory inspection but China softened the language so that it became a political rather than a legal commitment.
The draft resolution “calls upon member states to inspect all cargo to and from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea if the state concerned has information that provides reasonable grounds to believe the cargo contains prohibited items.
It calls on all UN member states to inspect suspect ships on the high seas. If banned material, such as arms, nuclear technology or missile components are found in the inspection, they must be seized and disposed of.