World powers moved closer to punishing North Korea with new sanctions for its nuclear test while envoys from the reclusive communist state held talks with South Koreans today over a troubled joint factory park.
The draft UN Security Council resolution, written by the United States and endorsed by the four other permanent members plus Japan and South Korea, aims to hit the North's meagre overseas finances and could be voted on by as early as tomorrow.
The resolution, if adopted, is likely to draw sharp rebuke from the prickly North, which threatened to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile unless the Security Council apologises for punishing it for an April rocket launch widely seen as a disguised long-range missile test.
"This sanctions regime, if passed by the Security Council, will bite, and bite in a meaningful way," US Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, told reporters.
North Korea has been subject to sanctions for years for military moves condemned by regional powers.
The UN draft "condemns in the strongest terms" North Korea's nuclear test last month and "demands that (it) not conduct any further nuclear test or any launch using ballistic missile technology."
The end result reflected compromises to satisfy Chinese and Russian objections. Beijing and Moscow had opposed language in earlier drafts requiring all countries to inspect North Korean ships carrying suspicious cargo that might violate a partial UN trade and arms embargo.
In the latest version, the Security Council "calls upon" states to inspect suspicious sea, air and land cargoes, but does not demand it. Arms sales are one of North Korea's few sources of hard cash.
Beijing, the closest Pyongyang can claim as a major ally, is reluctant to accept any new sanctions that would significantly undercut its economic ties to North Korea or push an already weak economy into collapse.
North Korea has angered the region and countries beyond in the past few weeks with missile launches, threats to attack the South and a nuclear test, prompting US and South Korean forces to raise a military alert on the peninsula to one of its highest since the 1950-53 Korean War.
Reuters