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UN chief Kofi Annan joined the Security Council in voicing “deep concern” over North Korea's plan to test a nuclear weapon, with the United States urging a coherent response while China called for restraint.
Japan's UN ambassador Kenzo Oshima, the council president for October, said the 15-member body would meet early Wednesday to come up with a “firm, appropriate response” to what he called a “very serious matter”.
“Council members all express serious concern” over Pyongyang's announcement that it plans to conduct a nuclear weapons test, Oshima said after morning consultations on the issue.
The Stalinist state gave no date for the planned test, but the shock announcement jangled nerves worldwide just three months after North Korea's missile launches.
Through his spokesman, Annan said he shared “the global concern” over the North Korean threat, which if carried out, “would bring universal condemnation and will not help DPRK (Pyongyang) achieve the goals expressed in its statement, particularly with regard to strengthening its security.”
US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton said he had asked his council colleagues to eschew “a knee-jerk reaction” in the form of the ritual statement condemning Pyongyang and instead to develop a “coherent strategy”.
“Issuing a piece of paper is not the same as having a policy, nor is it the same as a coherent, well-thought-out program of preventive diplomacy,” the US envoy added.
Instead, Bolton said Wednesday's council meeting would be a “brainstorming session to see if we can come up with a coherent policy” after members consult with their respective capitals.
But China's UN ambassador Wang Guangya appealed to all sides to show restraint and made it clear that the six-nation talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program was the “best channel” to resolve the issue.
“This is a sensitive issue, so I urge all sides to exercise restraint,” Wang said. “The best channel is still the six-party talks.”
Diplomatic efforts have intensified to bring North Korea, which last year declared itself a nuclear-armed nation, back to the disarmament talks.
But, publicly at least, Pyongyang insists it will not return to the six-party talks unless Washington ends financial sanctions imposed in September last year.
The Stalinist state has boycotted the six-party talks — involving China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the United States — since last November to protest those sanctions, imposed on a Macau bank accused of laundering funds for it.
Bolton said Pyongyang's announcement was a test case for the “preventative diplomacy” championed by the council.
“Given the very strong action by the council in July condemning the North Korean ballistic missile tests, I think it's important that we are prepared to follow up here,” he said. “Obviously the ballistic missile, if mated with nuclear weapons, would be a very grave threat to international peace and security.”
Last July, the Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution condemning North Korea's missile tests that was promptly rejected by Pyongyang as it vowed to carry out further launches.
That resolution, which North Korea's UN ambassador Pak Gil Yon described as “gangster-like,” demanded the immediate suspension of Pyongyang's ballistic missile program and imposed sanctions preventing it from buying and selling missile technology.
Pyongyang outraged the international community by test launching seven missiles on July 5, including a long-range Taepodong-2 believed to be capable of striking US soil.
In 1998, North Korea had already caused international alarm by firing a long-range Taepodong-1 missile over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean.
Oshima, warning that a North Korean test would be “a serious threat to regional and international peace and security and a big challenge to non-proliferation”, called on Pyongyang to implement fully last July's UN resolution.
The resolution “strongly urges” the North Koreans to immediately return to the six-party talks and implement their pledge to abandon their nuclear weapons program in exchange for energy and economic aid, eventual diplomatic benefits and security guarantees.
Annan also appealed to the North Koreans to “exercise utmost restraint” and return to the six-party talks.
