China and Russia jointly introduced Wednesday their own version of a U.N. Security Council resolution on North Korea which the U.S. and Japan called a step forward but still too weak.
Their version would be an alternative to the resolution circulated by Japan last week sanctioning the North for its missile launches.
Chinese envoy to the United Nations Wang Guangya said that he was instructed by Beijing to veto the Japanese draft if it came to a vote. The new China-Russia resolution would serve two purposes, he said, one of responding to North Korea's actions while maintaining stability on the Korean Peninsula and the region, and also of sending a unified UNSC message to Pyongyang.
"The proposal from Russia and China provides the basis for achieving these two objectives," he said.
Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the resolution goes "a long way" and has the foundation "for a successful outcome."
U.S. envoy John Bolton called the new proposal a "significant step," emphasizing that the two countries have presented a "resolution" rather than the presidential statement they were pushing for earlier.
"I think it's important," he said.
But he also talked of "deficiencies," indicating major gaps between what Beijing and Moscow have presented and what Tokyo and Washington support.
He said Washington and Tokyo are still looking for language that "binds" North Korea.
Fred Jones, spokesman for the National Security Council, said the U.S. support was still with Japan's draft.
"We have previously expressed support for the Japanese resolution," he said in Germany, where he was accompanying U.S.
President George W. Bush on a trip ahead of a G-8 summit in Russia this weekend.
"We remain supportive of the Japanese resolution."
Japan's U.N. ambassador, Kenzo Oshima, said the new draft was a "move in the right direction" but not likely to get Tokyo's vote.
"I think it will be very difficult for us to accept that as it is," he told reporters.
China and Russia, staunch allies of North Korea, still oppose any references to Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter that allows sanctions and even military action when international peace is threatened.
Pyongyang last week fired seven ballistic missiles, including one of its long-range Taepodong-2s that presumably can reach the U.S. west coast.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, appearing on a radio talk show last weekend, said the Pentagon believes North Korea has up to five more Taepodong-2 missile airframes.
"We have felt from the time we learned of the launching of the North Korean missiles that a Chapter 7 binding resolution was necessary because we want to bind North Korea," said Bolton.
"Now, if there is language that Russia and China have proposed that would have the same effect of binding the North Koreans, then I suppose we are happy to take a look at it."
Another gap, according to Bolton, is that the new draft does not use the word "decides" in the operative paragraphs and thus weakens the text. Using the word would make the resolution an order.
The U.S. envoy suggested that North Korea's missile launch triggers a mandatory Security Council resolution under Chapter 7 as agreed on by the legal advisers of the council's five permanent members, which include China and Russia.
There are three elements to making a UNSC resolution mandatory, including a determination that there was a threat to international peace and security and use of the word "decides."
"That's what the legal advisers of all five permanent members, all five permanent members, agreed," he said, making sure the emphasis was on all five.
The China-Russia draft, rather than "demands," asks U.N. members to "exercise vigilance" in preventing Pyongyang from receiving materials, goods and technology that could contribute to its missile programs.
The new draft came as the Security Council again delayed a vote on the Japanese-authored resolution on Wednesday, awaiting word from Pyongyang and Beijing on their ongoing high-level talks.
A Chinese delegation led by a deputy premier is in North Korea this week, trying to persuade Pyongyang to resolve the missile standoff through dialogue. It is due back in Beijing on Friday.
Chinese and U.S. officials said they have not yet discerned positive signs that the delegation's efforts were working.
"So far, we have not received any feedback from the North Korean leadership," Amb. Wang said.
"It is, frankly speaking, a little discouraging to see that the DPRK has not responded in a positive way," said Christopher Hill, chief U.S. negotiator with North Korea, in Beijing, where he was visiting for the second time in a week.
DPRK, or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is North Korea's official name.
At the State Department, spokesman Sean McCormack indicated that time was running out.
"We would have hoped that the North Korean government would have by this point given a positive response to what was clearly a united international community in condemning the missile launches," he said at a daily briefing.
McCormack said the U.S. expects the Security Council resolution, if it comes to a vote, "will be a strong resolution."
Washinton, July 12 (Yonhap News)
China, Russia introduce alternative N.K. resolution |
