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U.S. pushing for sanctions against North Korea
By Jonathan S. Landay and Tim Johnson
McClatchy Newspapers
The United States, which has no diplomatic or economic ties with
North Korea that it could use as leverage, made it clear that
it expected China to back a meaningful response to the test-firings.
"China understands that this was a provocative, unacceptable
action," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
U.S. envoy Christopher Hill was due in Beijing on Thursday on
a trip that was also taking him to Tokyo and Seoul for consultations
on how to proceed.
There was no clear word from Beijing on its view. The Chinese
ambassador to the United Nations, Wang Guangya, called the North
Korean tests regrettable. He gave no indication on whether China
would support the draft resolution.
"If all council members feel that some appropriate action
is needed by the council, we will see," Wang said.
 North
Korea on Wednesday (Tuesday and Wednesday in the United States)
fired six short- and medium-range missiles and a long-range Taepodong-2
that exploded 42 seconds into its flight over the Sea of Japan.
The tests helped push stocks lower and gasoline prices higher
on Wednesday amid worries of intensified tensions between North
Korea and Washington.
U.S. officials warned that the current series of tests may not
be over. The Associated Press cited South Korean media reports
that said North Korea has at least three more short- or medium-range
missiles on launch pads.
President Bush said Wednesday that the Taepodong-2's failure didn't
diminish his desire to resolve the threat posed by North Korea's
missile and nuclear weapons programs.
"I view this as an opportunity to remind the international
community that we must work together ... to convince the North
Korean leader to give up any weapons programs," Bush said.
The Pentagon said U.S. satellites, aircraft and radars had tracked
every firing and that interceptors of the rudimentary U.S. missile
defense system were ready for launching from bases in California
and Alaska, if necessary.
Japan's draft resolution at the Security Council condemned the
missile tests as a threat to international security. Japan and
South Korea, both key trade partners of the United States, are
in range of North Korean missiles.
The draft, co-sponsored by the United States and Britain, demanded
that North Korea cease launches, freeze its ballistic missile
development program and reaffirm its moratorium on missile tests.
It required that U.N. members prevent transfers of funds, materials
and technologies to Pyongyang or front companies that could be
used in North Korea's missile program.
And it called on North Korea to return immediately to negotiations
with the United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea on
ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program in return for economic
and security benefits. China has hosted the talks.
North Korea agreed in principle to the idea in September. But
since the latest talks in November, North Korea has refused to
negotiate after U.S. action forced a bank in Macau to freeze North
Korean accounts that were allegedly derived from the counterfeiting
of American currency and narcotics trafficking.
The 15-member Security Council adjourned without taking action
to allow time for consultations.
"We hope that the response of the council is swift, strong
and resolute," Kenzo Oshima, Japan's U.N. envoy, said at
the United Nations.
The last time North Korea tested a Taepodong missile was in 1998,
when it fired one across Japan into the Pacific Ocean. That launch
also was marred with problems.
"In eight years, they didn't make any progress," said
Yan Xuetong, director of the Strategic Research Institute at Tsinghua
University in Beijing.
"The launches will create more pressure on China than on
anyone else," Yan said.
Outsiders said Beijing might be growing weary of Pyongyang's attempts
to ratchet up tensions even as it provides its neighbor with lifelines
of energy and food.
"China will find it more costly to insulate North Korea,"
said Ron Huisken, an East Asian defense analyst at the Australian
National University in Canberra.
Still unclear is whether China knew of the launchings ahead of
time and how it will deal with growing pressure from Washington
and Tokyo to take action.
"These questions are too sensitive for me to answer. I can
only say that the Chinese government will mediate more vigorously,"
said Li Dunqiu, director of the Korean Peninsula Research Center
of the State Council Development and Research Center, a Beijing
state-run think tank.
Japan took unilateral actions against North Korea. It barred the
entry of a North Korean ferry into Niigata, a port city where
the vessel makes a near-monthly stop. Japan also barred North
Korean officials, ship crews and charter flights from entering
the country.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said Japan might also curb
hard currency remittances by ethnic Koreans residing in Japan
to their families in North Korea.
South Korea and China appealed for calm.
In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said China
was seriously concerned, but suggested that the possible U.S.
and Japanese responses to the test-firings was as worrisome as
what North Korea might do next.
"We hope that all sides will maintain calm and restraint
and do things conducive to the peace and stability of the Korean
peninsula and Northeast Asia and do not take any further steps
that will add to tensions and further complicate the situation,"
Liu said.
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