South Korea balked Monday at Washington's demand that it join a U.S.-led plan that would intercept North Korean ships suspected of carrying supplies for the North's nuclear and missile weapons programs.The South also announced no new measures to sanction North Korea under a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the North's Oct. 9 nuclear test, insisting it was already doing enough to stem possible weapons proliferation from neighboring North Korea.The moves underscore Seoul's reluctance to anger Pyongyang and complicate efforts to resolve the standoff over North Korea's nuclear program, now that the communist regime agreed to return to the long-stalled international nuclear disarmament talks.
"It's basically not necessary to take (new) measures as South Korea has already legislated regulations on controlling proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," said Park In-kook, a deputy foreign minister, at a news briefing.He also said the South wouldn't formally join the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative, or PSI, a campaign aimed largely at stopping North Korean weapons traffic by sea. Seoul is reluctant to become a permanent member out of concern that stopping and searching North Korean ships could lead to armed clashes.But the South's refusal makes monitoring the North's shipping more difficult. A PSI member can only conduct searches in the territorial waters of other members or of a ship flying its country's flag. Ships sailing on the high seas have free right of passage under international law.The South insists it can already inspect the dozens of North Korean ships that transit its waters under an inter-Korean maritime agreement. However, it has never done so.
Monday's announcement was made as South Korea finalized a report to be delivered Monday to the U.N. sanctions committee on how it would carry out the unanimously adopted resolution after the North's Oct. 9 nuclear test.The resolution bans the sale of major arms to North Korea and calls for inspection of cargo entering and leaving the country. It also calls for the freezing of assets of businesses supplying the North's nuclear and ballistic weapons programs, as well as restrictions on sales of luxury goods and travel bans on Pyongyang officials.South Korea has rejected criticism that it is too soft on North Korea, citing as an example of its toughness its suspension of humanitarian aid to the impoverished North after it test-fired a series of missiles over international objections.
On Monday, Lee Kwan-se, an official of the Unification Ministry that deals with reconciliation with North Korea, said the South would continue a hold on regular humanitarian aid to the North.Lee also said South Korea will suspend subsidies it pays for a tourism program at the North's Diamond Mountain resort, and also keep on hold an expansion plan for an inter-Korean industrial park in the North's border city of Kaesong.The two Koreas are still technically at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. But their relations have warmed since the first-and-only summit of their leaders in 2000, with Seoul pursuing engagement rather than confrontation under the so-called sunshine policy.