U.N. Security Council to vote Saturday on N.K. sanction resolution

The U.N. Security Council agreed to vote Saturday on a resolution sanctioning North Korea for its reported nuclear test earlier this week, envoys here said Friday.

The resolution, condemning the nuclear test North Korea claims to have conducted on Monday, restricts weapons trade in and out of the communist country. But as demanded by China, one of North Korea's key allies, the resolution drops references to a U.N. Charter chapter on possible use of armed force and instead includes Article 41 on non-military sanctions.

"The Council has agreed, basically, that we will put our text of a resolution in blue this afternoon and vote tomorrow morning," U.S. Ambassador John Bolton told reporters after a morning session.

"In blue" refers to a final draft.

"We do have agreement, unanimous agreement, we are going to follow that schedule," he said.

Japanese Ambassador Kenzo Oshima, the Council's president for October, said he wants to set the vote time "not too late in the morning."

The U.N. spokesman's office said a Council session is scheduled to begin at 9:45 a.m., followed by a vote.

There may be additional changes to the text by the time it goes to a vote, Bolton said, but he expressed satisfaction at the swiftness of the Council's reaction, "a sign of the determination of the Council in the face of this threat to move quickly."

The developments at the U.N. eclipsed the election of South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon as the next secretary-general of the global organization. Ban will take office Jan. 1.

The resolution, the latest draft of which was proposed by the U.S., is a compromise with China, which wanted to remove any reference to the possible use of armed force in dealing with North Korea and include more language emphasizing diplomatic efforts to bring Pyongyang back to the dialogue table.

Rather than a full arms embargo on the communist country, the resolution targets heavy weapons such as nuclear and ballistic missiles.

The key U.S. demand, the authority to search North Korean cargo to interdict shipments of weapons of mass destruction, is still in the resolution. The search would mandate all U.N. members to follow what the U.S. and its allies are already exercising under the Proliferation Security Initiative.

But China was clearly hesitant about this part of the resolution.

"The PSI, politically, China will not do it, " Chinese envoy to the U.N. Wang Guangya said.

Such exercises could lead to further provocation by North Korea, he said.

Bolton said most inspections would be made at ports but also entail boarding ships at sea.

"We've signed ship-boarding agreements with a number of countries. And I am sure that that pattern will be followed here," the U.S. ambassador said.

The resolution also bans sales of "luxury goods" to North Korea, a point that may be targeting the country's top leader, Kim Jong-il, known for his lavish lifestyle and a penchant for Western whiskey and movies.

"I think, you know, the North Korean population's been losing average height and weight over the years, and maybe this will be a little diet for Kim Jong-il," Bolton said.

The U.S. was already launching post-resolution diplomacy, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice traveling to Japan, South Korea and China next week.

"She's going to be talking about the passage of that resolution, certainly, but really what comes after it," department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Christopher Hill, Washington's point man on North Korea, is expected to fly out to the region before Rice.

In an address at the National Press Club, Hill called the purported nuclear test a "fundamental mistake" and said North Korea should understand that its decision is "very, very costly."

"I think a key part of her trip will be to make sure that the resolution, when passed, will really have teeth to it and will really function properly," the diplomat said.

But the intelligence community has yet to ascertain whether North Korea's claim of a successful nuclear detonation is true.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said at his daily briefing Friday that the U.S. needed more time to reach such a conclusion.

Officials at the Defense Department, after looking at air samples collected soon after Monday's test, said they had not found any evidence of nuclear debris that should be present after such a detonation.

But they said they couldn't rule out the possibility completely.

"Based upon the analysis, we can't prove it was a nuclear explosion, and we can't say it wasn't," one official was quoted as saying by AFP.

Snow said the authenticity of the test was irrelevant.

"That (test) in and of itself is an act of provocation and has led to some serious diplomatic work on the part of all the parties," he said.

An uncertain signal came out of Pyongyang, which, according to a Russian official visiting there, indicated it wants to talk "in the near future" to resolve the nuclear issue.

There is a desire "to find a way out of the existing crisis situation and to find a way to restart six-nation talks," Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev was quoted as saying by ITAR-TASS.

The six-nation forum, involving South and North Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan, aims at denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. It has been dormant since November due to Pyongyang's boycott.

The White House spokesman said it would be "great news" if North Korea were to come back to the table but added a cautionary note.

"Keep in mind also that the North Koreans are not above a little gamesmanship a few hours before the United Nations is getting ready to vote on a resolution," said Snow.

In an unexpected move, the Non-aligned Movement (NAM), a group of 118 nations including North Korea, issued a communique from Havana urging Pyongyang to halt nuclear tests and not transfer nuclear weapons-related material or technology. Cuba is the current chair-nation of the group that represents close to two-thirds of U.N. member states.

The communique said NAM supports the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and that affected countries should find a peaceful solution through dialogue.

New York, Oct. 13 (Yonhap News)