U.N. Nears Action on N. Korea

The Security Council edged closer to agreement Thursday on a draft sanctions resolution designed to strangle North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs and their funding in response to the country’s announced nuclear test.

After a flurry of high-level negotiations in Washington, Beijing and Moscow, diplomats at the United Nations worked out a compromise specifying that the resolution could not be used as a basis for military action.

The new draft was sent to capitals for consideration in time for a possible vote today or Saturday.

The resolution also calls for an embargo on conventional weapons, a ban on luxury goods, a prohibition against materials related to North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs and a freeze on financial activities that support them, as well as a travel ban for senior North Korean officials. It would also allow the interception and inspection of suspected nuclear and missile materials going to and from North Korea.

Russia and China, sensitive to the prospect of intrusive activity so close to their borders, are concerned about whether proposed inspections of all North Korean cargo would be legal. The neighbors, which as permanent members of the Security Council hold veto power, had balked at an earlier draft circulated by the United States on Thursday. The new measure says the inspections should be “cooperative.”

The U.S. added the provision against military action after a special envoy from China met with President Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and national security advisor Stephen Hadley at the White House. The envoy, Tang Jiaxuan, told them that China agreed that “strong measures” were needed to punish North Korea but that it only wanted sanctions related to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones said.

Afterward, Rice acknowledged it would take a little more effort on both sides to come up with a draft acceptable to China, which would have to implement many of the sanctions.

“I think the Chinese clearly understand the gravity of the situation,” Rice said. “They clearly understand that the North Koreans in doing this have made the environment much less stable and much less secure.” She said that if the vote did not happen today, “I think it will be soon.”

Tang goes to Moscow for meetings today and Saturday, while South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun travels to Beijing to discuss the issue.

“I don’t want to say we’ve reached agreement, but many, many of the significant differences have been closed,” said U.S. Ambassador John R. Bolton, after a breakthrough meeting among the Security Council’s permanent members and Japan. “But I’m very pleased with the progress we’ve made, and I think it’s close to the point where we will have an agreement.”

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said he had urged Bolton on Thursday morning to slow down the process to ensure full agreement by the council and to prevent problems in the resolution’s implementation.

Bolton said the United States would consider changes in the resolution but was determined to vote on it by the end of the week. He left it “open to interpretation” which day he meant.

“I think the council should try to respond to a nuclear test within the same week that the test occurred,” Bolton said. “We’re certainly in favor of keeping all the diplomatic channels open, but we also want swift action, and we shouldn’t allow meetings and more meetings ... to be an excuse for inaction.”

Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya said the resolution should be “firm, forceful and appropriate.” He said he was willing to accept an article of Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter -- at the heart of the debate on the North Korea resolution -- authorizing economic sanctions, but not the part that allows military action.

The United States, Britain and France -- the other permanent members of the Security Council -- argue that the issue is a test of the council’s authority.

British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said, “If you can’t even vote Chapter 7 when a country performs a nuclear test, you have to wonder whether we’ll be using Chapter 7 ever again.

“There is a perception -- a misperception -- that it leads to military action. It does not.”

North Korean Ambassador Pak Gil Yon repeated a threat that his government would consider Security Council sanctions a declaration of war.

“We will take counter-measures,” he told The Times.

He said that he did not know if the nuclear test had a smaller explosion than expected but that it had achieved its aims. “I am not a scientist. All I know is that the test was successful.”

maggie.farley@latimes.com