UNITED NATIONS - UN Security Council members reached broad agreement on
Thursday on a Japanese-drafted statement that warns North Korea of unspecified
consequences if it conducts a nuclear test.
The text is similar to the original and was negotiated by junior diplomats of
the 15 council members. It was being sent to governments for possible changes
before further discussions on Friday.
North Korea announced on Tuesday it planned its first underground nuclear
test, saying its hand had been forced by a US "threat of nuclear war and
sanctions."
The statement, first submitted by Japan's UN Ambassador Kenzo Oshima, this
month's council president, urges Pyongyang to cancel its planned test and return
immediately to six-party talks aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its
atomic arms program.
The text warns North Korea that a nuclear test would lead to further
unspecified council action "consistent with its responsibility under the Charter
of the United Nations."
But it does not include a US proposal to refer to Chapter 7 of the UN
Charter, which lists enforcement actions.
Chapter 7 includes sanctions and other punitive measures, including a
military strike, providing the council adopts a resolution specifying the
action, which at this stage is doubtful.
The statement tells North Korea any nuclear weapons test would "jeopardize
peace, stability and security in the region and beyond and "bring universal
condemnation by the international community."
"I think it is important for the international community, through the
council, let North Korea understand that noncompliance would involve some
consequences," Oshima said earlier.
Diplomats said officials in Beijing and Moscow may try to change the text.
China had insisted that the six-power talks and not the Security Council should
be the main forum for dealing with North Korea.
The draft statement includes a paragraph saying the Security Council supports
the six-party talks. It calls for their "early resumption with a view to
achieving the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."
The two Koreas, China, Japan, the United States and Russia have held talks
aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program, but North Korea walked out
of them a year ago and refuses to return until Washington ends a financial
squeeze.
The Security Council adopted a resolution on July 15 imposing weapons-related
sanctions on North Korea in response to its flurry of missile tests earlier that
month.
That measure demands that North Korea suspend "all activities" on its
ballistic missile programs and bans imports from or exports to North Korea of
missile-related items.