Fresh threats of santions against North Korea

A jittery world lashed out at North Korea today with fresh threats of harsh sanctions, a day after its nuclear test.

A jittery world lashed out at North Korea today with fresh threats of harsh sanctions, a day after its nuclear test.

Australia said it would impose a range of measures on the communist regime, including curtailing visas and supporting any United Nations sanctions, while Japan said it was weighing stricter economic sanctions against its neighbour.

South Korea condemned the attacks, but said it would take a couple of weeks to confirm whether the nuclear test was actually successful, as claimed by the North.

Even North Korea’s erstwhile ally China joined the chorus, signalling that Beijing appears ready to drop opposition to tough UN sanctions.

“China seems to have different position than it had before on a Chapter 7 resolution,” Chun Young-woo told The Associated Press, referring to the section of the UN Charter that deals with threats to international peace.

To deal with these threats or conflicts, the UN Security Council can authorise a range of measures under Chapter 7, from breaking diplomatic ties and imposing economic and military sanctions to taking military action to restore peace.

The swirl of diplomatic alarm comes as the UN Security Council began weighing a US draft resolution to impose potentially crippling sanctions on North Korea.

Hours after the North Korean test, the Security Council unanimously condemned the move and urged Pyongyang to refrain from further nuclear blasts, return to six-party talks and keep its pledge to scrap its clandestine weapons program.

US President George Bush called the North Korean announcement provocative and unacceptable.

Pyongyang’s actions “constitutes a threat to international peace and security” and requires “an immediate response” from the Security Council, he said.

Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer said today his country will go ahead with its own sanctions, but stopped short of severing Canberra’s limited diplomatic relations with the North, which are viewed as an important conduit to the outside world.

Australia, a close ally of the United States, and the North resumed diplomatic relations in 2000 after Pyongyang agreed to international negotiations over its nuclear ambitions.

“We were urging our friends and allies in the United Nations to pass a resolution imposing sanctions,” Downer said.

Japan, a key player in six-nation international talks aimed at dismantling the North’s nuclear program, echoed Australia’s call for sanctions.

“We will discuss sanctions at the UN Security Council,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said. “We are considering all possibilities. What kind of resolution it will be will be based on the results of the discussion at the Security Council.”

Japanese finance minister Koji Omi, meanwhile, said Tokyo will consider expanding its already constricting financial sanctions against the North.

Japan imposed limited sanctions in July – including barring a North Korean trade ferry from Japanese ports – after North Korea conducted missile tests in July, then imposed more financial sanctions in September.

South Korean officials meanwhile said they believed North Korea tested a nuclear weapon as claimed, but presidential security adviser Song Min-soon said it would take about two weeks to determine if it had been successful.

Seoul believes North Korea is trying to use a test as a bargaining chip with the US to win concessions, Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok said.

Meanwhile, a North Korean official said Pyongyang is willing to return to international arms talks and abandon its atomic program if the US takes “corresponding measures”.

“The nuclear test is an expression of our intention to face the United States across the negotiating table,” the unnamed official said. “What we want is security of the (North), including guaranteeing our system.”

China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States have held intermittent talks with North Korea since 2003 in the hope of getting Pyongyang to abandon nuclear weapons in exchange for aid and security guarantees.

A Security Council resolution adopted in July after a series of North Korean missile launches imposed limited sanctions on North Korea and demanded that the country rejoin international nuclear talks.

Pyongyang rejected the plea.

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