ID :
54056
Mon, 04/06/2009 - 08:05
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/54056
The shortlink copeid
Lee urges bipartisan support in coping with N.K. provocation
SEOUL, April 6 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak sought to win unconditional support from the country's ruling and opposition parties Monday for a government move to punish North Korea for its rocket launch a day earlier despite repeated international warnings.
The president's call for bipartisan support came in a special meeting with
leaders of the ruling Grand National Party, the main opposition Democratic Party
(DP) and minority opposition Party for Advanced Korea.
"Everyone at the G-20 (summit) was concerned. Even China and Russia said everyone
must discourage North Korea from firing the rocket," the president said at the
meeting, referring to his attendance at the gathering of the world's 20 major
economies held in London last week.
North Korea launched a long-range rocket Sunday in what it claimed was part of a
space program to put an experimental communications satellite into orbit.
Seoul believes the launch was a failure based on U.S. intelligence reports that
the payload, along with the second and third stages of the rocket, fell into the
Pacific Ocean.
Still, South Korea, Japan and the United States are moving to impose new U.N.
sanctions on the communist nation as they have long maintained any rocket launch
would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions even if for a space program.
At the meeting, the president asked the political parties to present an unified
voice at least on North Korean issues.
Seoul has yet to announce any of its own retaliatory steps against the North, but
observers here believe the country could further reduce its economic or
humanitarian assistance for the communist nation.
Such a move would require the full and unconditional support of the DP and other
liberal opposition parties, which are often sympathetic to the impoverished
North, they noted.
Pyongyang is prohibited from any missile-related activities under U.N. Security
Council Resolution 1718 adopted shortly after North Korea's missile and nuclear
tests in 2006.
Lee, however, noted the difficulties anticipated in convincing the U.N. Security
Council to make a unanimous call on the issue, saying, "We cannot do as we
please."
China and Russia, close allies of North Korea, are expected to exercise their
veto power at the U.N. Security Council if any country tries to push through a
new resolution to impose additional sanctions on the impoverished North.
The Security Council on Monday held its first session since the North Korean
rocket launch, but no agreement on how to deal with the North emerged from that
meeting.
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)
The president's call for bipartisan support came in a special meeting with
leaders of the ruling Grand National Party, the main opposition Democratic Party
(DP) and minority opposition Party for Advanced Korea.
"Everyone at the G-20 (summit) was concerned. Even China and Russia said everyone
must discourage North Korea from firing the rocket," the president said at the
meeting, referring to his attendance at the gathering of the world's 20 major
economies held in London last week.
North Korea launched a long-range rocket Sunday in what it claimed was part of a
space program to put an experimental communications satellite into orbit.
Seoul believes the launch was a failure based on U.S. intelligence reports that
the payload, along with the second and third stages of the rocket, fell into the
Pacific Ocean.
Still, South Korea, Japan and the United States are moving to impose new U.N.
sanctions on the communist nation as they have long maintained any rocket launch
would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions even if for a space program.
At the meeting, the president asked the political parties to present an unified
voice at least on North Korean issues.
Seoul has yet to announce any of its own retaliatory steps against the North, but
observers here believe the country could further reduce its economic or
humanitarian assistance for the communist nation.
Such a move would require the full and unconditional support of the DP and other
liberal opposition parties, which are often sympathetic to the impoverished
North, they noted.
Pyongyang is prohibited from any missile-related activities under U.N. Security
Council Resolution 1718 adopted shortly after North Korea's missile and nuclear
tests in 2006.
Lee, however, noted the difficulties anticipated in convincing the U.N. Security
Council to make a unanimous call on the issue, saying, "We cannot do as we
please."
China and Russia, close allies of North Korea, are expected to exercise their
veto power at the U.N. Security Council if any country tries to push through a
new resolution to impose additional sanctions on the impoverished North.
The Security Council on Monday held its first session since the North Korean
rocket launch, but no agreement on how to deal with the North emerged from that
meeting.
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)
