U.N. Tells N. Korea Not to Test a Device

The Security Council unanimously urged North Korea on Friday to scrap plans for a nuclear test and return to six-party talks -- or face unspecified consequences.

Newly elected Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Friday that the test could come as early as this weekend. U.S. spy satellites have detected sustained activity at a suspected underground test site in North Korea. Abe will travel to Beijing on Sunday and Seoul on Monday to press for support in corralling North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

North Korea has in the past timed its military exercises to coincide with significant dates: It launched missiles on July 4, despite international warnings. Monday is Workers’ Party Day in North Korea and Columbus Day in the United States.

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry had announced Oct. 3 that the nation was preparing for a nuclear test to ensure its security in the face of what the government in Pyongyang described as threats from the United States.

The U.S. levied financial sanctions against North Korea last year and has encouraged banks around the world to cut off business dealings because of Pyongyang’s suspected money laundering and counterfeiting. The North Koreans want the U.S. to lift the sanctions and engage in direct talks, and the threat to test a nuclear device is seen by diplomats and analysts as a way to heighten pressure.

The Security Council statement said that a test would not bring Pyongyang closer to its goals. Rather it would “bring universal condemnation by the international community,” the statement said. “The Security Council urges the DPRK not to undertake such a test and to refrain from any action that might aggravate tension,” the statement added, using the initials for the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

U.S. Ambassador John R. Bolton said the Security Council took the threat seriously and that the United States was prepared to push for international economic sanctions. “If they do test it, it will be a very different world the day after,” he said before the meeting. “There would be another nuclear power. This would be proof positive of North Korea having a weapon.”

China and Russia had objected to earlier drafts of the statement that threatened an arms embargo, economic penalties or military force for failing to comply. The two nations rejected wording to “demand” that North Korea halt its plans, settling instead for a statement that would “urge” it to do so. But Russian diplomats said they were “very concerned” about the possibility of a test.

“We very clearly and strongly believe that to threaten conducting nuclear tests, or even worse, to conduct such tests ... would not help anybody, including North Korea,” Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said. “This message is very clearly conveyed in the useful presidential statement which we today adopted.

“Let’s hope that things will cool off and that everybody will return to six-party talks,” he said, referring to the on-and-off negotiations that have involved China, Russia, the U.S., South Korea and Japan along with North Korea.

Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya said that North Korea was ultimately seeking direct talks with the U.S., and that the key to containing Pyongyang might be negotiations. “I don’t know if that is possible right at this moment, but at some point it is necessary,” he said.

To Bush administration officials, offering one-on-one talks with the North Koreans is tantamount to rewarding them for bad behavior. When asked previously if the U.S. would consider direct talks, Bolton answered curtly, “No. Next question.” Instead, he said Friday, the Security Council should now move toward a “broad strategic approach.”

The U.S. is contemplating punitive measures even if the council won’t back them. One possible response, a U.S. diplomat said, would be a naval blockade to prevent nuclear-related materials from entering or leaving the country.

maggie.farley@latimes.com