UNSC draft statement on N. Korean rocket launch legally binding: State Dept

By Hwang Doo-hyong

WASHINGTON, April 13 (Yonhap) -- The United States Monday said that a draft statement likely to be adopted at a U.N. Security Council later in the day to condemn North Korea's rocket launch last week is legally binding.

"As far as we're concerned, it is binding," State Department spokesman Robert
Wood said. "It'll be incumbent upon Security Council members, other members of
the international community to do what we need to do with regard to North Korea:
use all of our tools available to try to convince the North to come back to the
table and continue the process of denuclearization."
The spokesman's remarks come amid criticism that the Security Council
presidential statement is not legally binding whatever it contains, unlike a
resolution.
Denouncing the U.S. government for its failure to get a resolution, former U.S.
Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton has described a presidential statement as
merely "an opinion."
The draft presidential statement is a compromise as China and Russia have opposed
any effort by the U.S. and its allies to adopt a legally binding resolution
against the rocket launch.
China, North Korea's staunchest communist ally, and Russia have been siding with
North Korea's claim that it has the right to send a satellite into space as part
of its space program. The U.S. and its allies see it as a cover for a ballistic
missile test.
The draft, circulated to the media Saturday, demands that the council's sanctions
committee list North Korean companies and goods to be subjected to the trade
embargo by the end of this month.
The draft apparently aims to address the criticism that Resolution 1718, adopted
in 2006 after North Korea's ballistic missile and nuclear tests, has largely been
neglected due to lack of proper implementation measures, although the resolution
calls for member states to refrain from trading in weapons, parts and luxury
goods with North Korea.
"Don't get hung up on the form of a particular response," Wood said in a daily
news briefing. "The important thing is that we deliver a very strong and
coordinated response to North Korea. I believe that that draft statement does do
just that."
On Saturday, Japanese Ambassador to the U.N. Yukio Takasu said the statement
carries "a strong message we have not seen among presidential statements adopted
in the past."
The draft "condemns the April 5, 2009, launch by the Democratic People's Republic
of Korea, which is in contravention of Security Council Resolution 1718." The
DPRK is North Korea's official name.
It also demands that North Korea refrain from any further ballistic missile
launches and return to the six-party talks, which are deadlocked over how to
verify its past and current nuclear activities.
"We want to do everything we can in getting a message to the North Koreans that
this type of activity cannot happen again, mustn't happen again," Wood said. "And
we're going to, again, continue to encourage the North to come back to the
six-party framework."
North Korea has threatened to scrap the six-party nuclear talks if the rocket
launch is brought to the Security Council, hinting at another nuclear test.
Analysts say North Korea's rocket launch was aimed at consolidating North Korean
leader Kim Jong-il's power amid rumors of his failing health and the possible
nomination of his third and youngest son, Jong-un, as his successor in another
dynastic power transfer.
The rocket was launched just days before the new Supreme People's Assembly, North
Korea's parliament, reelected Kim Thursday, ending suspicions that his grip on
state affairs has been slipping after he reportedly suffered a stroke last
summer.