Momentum for solution to N Korea crisis grows

North Korea: Momentum built yesterday to seek a diplomatic solution to the North Korean missile crisis, with Seoul distancing…

North Korea: Momentum built yesterday to seek a diplomatic solution to the North Korean missile crisis, with Seoul distancing itself from Japanese-led UN moves to slap punitive sanctions on the reclusive state.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il said his country would not budge in negotiations with the United States, adding that Pyongyang was ready to meet any attack with a strong blow of its own, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported yesterday.

The broadcast did not say when Mr Kim made the comments.

After the reclusive state defied world opinion and test-fired seven missiles last week, Japan formally introduced a UN resolution, co-sponsored by the United States, Britain and France, to impose sanctions against its missile programme.

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But in the face of strong opposition from veto-wielding Security Council members China and Russia, the top US envoy for North Korea said yesterday he backed Beijing's proposal for talks to re-engage the communist state.

South Korea questioned whether UN sanctions would either help resolve the latest crisis or make the region any safer.

"For the time being, we do not have clear grounds or reasoning that these sanctions will work for preventing any missile proliferation, or any factors that destabilise the regional stability," Song Min-soon, the presidential national security adviser, said.

Japanese foreign minister Taro Aso said Tokyo would not back down on its sanctions demand. "For us, only a binding resolution has any meaning," he said.

But US envoy Christopher Hill told reporters in Seoul: "My mission here is not to get sanctions. My mission here is to make sure that we can all speak with one voice to deal with this real provocative action by the North Koreans."

Mr Hill, who rushed to Asia for talks following Wednesday's missile launches, went on: "What it [North Korea] needs to do is get back to the talks and implement what it has already agreed to do, which is to get out of this dirty nuclear business that it is in and get on with the task of modernising their country."

After an initial stop in Beijing, Mr Hill arrived in Tokyo from Seoul yesterday evening and said he saw no splintering among the parties.

"All countries are showing resolve in the ways that they can," he told reporters at Tokyo's Haneda airport.

He said Japan was looking at bilateral sanctions involving some of its direct contacts with North Korea, which the US does not have.

Mr Hill earlier told a small group of reporters in Seoul that the US was keen to pursue diplomacy with North Korea but would have no qualms in seeing Pyongyang further isolated.

"If they want to negotiate, we are prepared to do so within the six-party process," he said, referring to stalled talks among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the US aimed at persuading Pyongyang to scrap its nuclear weapons programmes.

"If North Korea wants to isolate itself, we will do our best to oblige them," Mr Hill added.