The United Nations Security Council put off its reaction to North Korea's plans to test a nuclear weapon until later Wednesday as its members remained split over how to respond.
The United States and Japan wished to send a strong response to Tuesday's announcement by the North's Foreign Ministry that the country plans to conduct a nuclear test, but the 15-member Council was unable to do so due to opposition from China, which said the issue must be addressed within stalled negotiations over North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
The Security Council was to convene a meeting Wednesday morning (New York time) after its members consult with their respective governments.
"Obviously the ballistic missiles, if mated with nuclear weapons, would be a very grave threat to international peace and security," U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolt said, according to AFP.
North Korea test-fired a long-range Taepodong-2 missile, which is believed capable of reaching the west coast of the United States, on July 5 along with six other mid- and long-range missiles.
The communist state said Tuesday it will "conduct a nuclear test in the future under the condition where safety is firmly guaranteed."
The calls for swift action by the Security Council, however, were quickly rejected by China, a close ally of the communist North and a veto power-wielding member of the council.
Wang Guangya, Beijing's U.N. ambassador, said the issue was "a sensitive one" that calls on "all sides to exercise restraint."
But he said the issue would be best handled at the international negotiations aimed at ending the dispute over North Korea's nuclear weapons program, saying "the best channel is through the six-party talks."
"If the six-party talks cannot do anything about it, I don't think the council is in a position to do," he told reporters.
Tuesday's announcement prompted quick reactions from Seoul and its allies, as well as U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, who said he shared "the global concern" over the North Korean threat.
After a meeting of security ministers in Seoul, the South Korean government on Wednesday urged Pyongyang to "immediately scrap its plan for a nuclear test," saying possession of nuclear weapons by North Korea "would never be acceptable."
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said the North's plans to test a nuclear weapon were "totally unforgivable," while the country's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said his country "would definitely not tolerate" such a test and "the international community would respond harshly" if it is carried out.
U.S. officials voiced "deep" concerns, but they said Washington remained committed to resolving the nuclear dispute peacefully through dialogue.
In a news conference in Cairo, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said "it would be a very provocative act by the North Koreans" that concerns not only the United States but the "entire neighborhood" of Northeast Asia.
"They have not yet done it, but it would be a very provocative act," Rice was quoted as saying at the press conference in the Egyptian capital.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, on a visit to Nicaragua, suggested the reaction of the international community following a North Korean nuclear test may be "sufficient to get the North Koreans to go back and have the six-party talks."
But he said his country believes the multilateral talks "are the proper method for dealing with North Korea" and that "We continue to work with our six-party partners to bring the North Koreans back to the talks."
The North claimed it is compelled to conduct a nuclear test due to what it called U.S. hostility toward it and said its nuclear weapons would "serve as reliable war deterrent...from the U.S. threat of aggression."
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said a nuclear test would only bring "universal condemnation" while doing little to help "achieve the goals expressed in its statement, particularly with regard to strengthening its security."
North Korea has been boycotting the international negotiations over its nuclear ambitions since November despite repeated calls by its fellow participants -- South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and the United States -- to return.
The dispute over North Korea's nuclear ambitions erupted in late 2002 when Washington accused Pyongyang of trying to develop nuclear weapons with highly enriched uranium, an accusation still denied by the communist state.
The North declared its possession of nuclear weapons in a Foreign Ministry statement released in February last year, but claims the weapons are plutonium-based.
New York/Seoul, Oct. 4 (Yonhap News)
Security Council split over how to react to N. Korea's nuclear test plans |
