N. Korea to face Security Council over rocket launch amid differences: officials

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, March 30 (Yonhap) -- South Korea, the U.S. and Japan will refer North
Korea to the U.N. Security Council should it go ahead with a rocket launch,
Seoul's nuclear envoy said Monday, but others noted the possibility of further
sanctions remained in question without commitments from China or Russia.
"We are continuing diplomatic efforts based on a firm South Korea-U.S.
cooperation and a consensus among participants of the six-party talks," Wi
Sung-lac told South Korean correspondents here. "We've discussed ways to tackle
North Korea's rocket launch and proceed with the stalled six-party talks."
Wi was explaining his meetings with Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. pointman on North
Korea, and White House and congressional leaders on North Korea's missile and
atomic programs, which he has been holding since Friday.
The South Korean envoy is expected to head home on Tuesday, winding up his
five-day trip here. Wi's schedule included the first tripartite meeting with his
counterparts from Washington and Tokyo since he and Bosworth took their posts
last month.
On the extent of sanctions to be imposed after the North's rocket launch, Wi said
Friday that he "would not prejudge what the U.N. Security Council will do,"
apparently in recognition of China's and Russia's likely opposition.
A senior South Korean official traveling here said on condition of anonymity that
China and Russia differ from South Korea, the U.S. and Japan in their position on
the North Korean rocket launch, "although we need to wait and see how different
their positions will be."
North Korea has warned that referring its rocket launch to the council will be
considered a "blatant hostile act" and threatened to scrap the six-party talks on
its denuclearization.
It also pledged to take "strong measures" in the face of any U.N. action against
it, hinting at a possible second nuclear test, following one conducted in 2006.
China, the North's staunchest communist ally, has been urging all parties
concerned to show restraint. This has invited speculation that Beijing will not
approve any U.N. resolution against the North, which has defended the launch of
what it claims is a satellite as within its right to develop a peaceful space
program.
China greatly toned down a U.N. resolution adopted in 2006 soon after North
Korea's ballistic missile launch.
"We are open to every possibility" in the security council discussions, the South
Korean official said, including a resolution with or without sanctions or a
chairman's statement without specific sanctions.
The coordinated position of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan is that any launch of
a rocket by the North would be grounds for further sanctions. They suspect the
launch is a cover to test its ballistic missile technology.
"North Korea is the only country subjected to sanctions under a U.N. resolution
for its launch of a rocket for satellite delivery," the official said. "That's
because North Korea is believed to possess nuclear warheads."
North Korea detonated its first nuclear device in 2006 and is believed to have
several nuclear bombs. It remains unclear whether it possesses the technology to
tip a missile with an atomic device.
Iran recently succeeded in sending a communications satellite into orbit without
facing any international sanctions.
Reports said that Iran's rocket was developed in close cooperation with North
Korea over the past decades, spawning speculation that Iran's satellite launch
data have already been funneled to Pyongyang. North Korea has announced it will
launch the rocket between April 4 and 8.
The Seoul official expected that the launch would eventually lead to talks to
address North Korea's missile capability, although it is not clear at the moment
whether the missile talks would be incorporated into the current six-party
framework.
"All the participants in the six-party talks need to agree on taking it as a full
agenda if it is to be officially included," the official said.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has suggested initiating missile talks
with North Korea, while some experts have suggested that Washington pay up to
US$1 billion annually in compensation if the North halts its long-range missile
exports, deployment and development.
North Korea, known to be a major provider of missiles and missile parts to Syria,
Iran and other Middle Eastern countries, had demanded cash compensation a decade
earlier.
The official predicted that the six-party talks would resume after a cooling-off
period following the North's rocket launch, although the launch and ensuing
security council sanctions may have an adverse impact in the short term.
"We have a precedent in which six-party talks resumed in a fairly short period of
time of a few months after North Korea conducted its nuclear test in 2006 to
agree to a nuclear deal," the official said.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said on Sunday the U.S. will not shoot down the
rocket unless it is approaching U.S. territory to avoid the worst-case scenario,
in which North Korea scraps six-party talks, retaliates and detonates its second
nuclear device in a showdown with the U.S.
Gates' remarks came as experts dismissed the possibility of an interception due
to technical shortfalls in the U.S. missile defense system and political
implications.
U.S. President Barack Obama is to address the North Korean missile issue later
this week when he meets with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, Chinese
President Hu Jintao and other world leaders bilaterally on the sidelines of the
G20 economic summit in London.
"We'll obviously want to take an opportunity to discuss our shared concerns about
preparations in North Korea for a launch that we, as you know, would consider to
be counter to U.N. Security Council resolution 1718," Denis McDonough, White
House deputy national security adviser, said Saturday.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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