AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
A US envoy said Wednesday that diplomacy could still resolve the standoff over North Korea's missile tests as China and Russia stood firm against a push at the United Nations to impose sanctions.
Japan, however, refused to back down in its Western-backed draft resolution to punish Pyongyang, although it also clarified earlier statements of a theoretical pre-emptive strike that set off fury in both North and South Korea.
South Korea, which opposes strong reprisals against the North, hoped to use diplomacy to resolve the crisis, warning a high-level visiting delegation from the North against firing more missiles.
Christopher Hill, the top US envoy on North Korea, was back in Beijing on a regional tour, hoping to hear from Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing on a Chinese delegation's ongoing talks with Pyongyang's reclusive leadership.
When asked by reporters if time was running out to settle the crisis through negotiations, Hill responded: “No, I wouldn't use that. Obviously, we are going to evaluate every day how we are (doing) on the diplomacy.”
“The DPRK is in a historic moment,” Hill told reporters in Beijing, referring to North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
“They must decide further isolation or to join the rest of the world. Yet they cannot decide what to do with this historic moment,” he said.
North Korea on July 5 test-fired seven missiles, including a new Taepodong-2 which was said to be able to hit Alaska or Hawaii but quickly crashed into the Sea of Japan (East Sea).
Pyongyang declared last year it had nuclear weapons and has warned that it would consider sanctions an “act of war.”
The communist regime walked out of six-nation talks in November that aimed to end its nuclear program and ease concern over its missiles.
Hill refused to cede to the North's demands for re-entering talks — lifting US financial sanctions on a bank in Macau alleged to launder and counterfeit money for the impoverished regime.
“How much money laundering would you suggest we allow? A small amount, a medium amount?” Hill said.
North Korea's last long-range tested missile flew over Japan into the Pacific Ocean in 1998, leading Tokyo to step up work on a missile shield with the United States.
China and Russia do not share Japan's security concerns and instead fear the consequences of putting too much pressure on the North.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that the Japanese draft resolution, which is backed by the United States and European powers, “contains unacceptable points.”
French Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, the president of the Security Council for July, hinted that China had threatened to veto the draft.
He suggested the body might want to first adopt a weaker Chinese text before tackling the Japanese resolution.
China has proposed a presidential statement, which carries no legal force. The French envoy said the wording needed to be “stronger” to be acceptable to all members.
Japan refused to budge on a binding resolution.
“There is no change to our stance to push for the passage of the resolution,” said Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, the spokesman for the Japanese government.
Abe, a leading contender to become Japan's next prime minister, clarified his statement earlier this week on a theoretical pre-emptive attack on the North.
He said he was talking only of a hypothetical scenario under which Japan, which is officially pacifist, were under attack.
But Rodong Sinmun, the mouthpiece of the ruling Workers Party, said an attack would be a throwback to Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula.
“Japan must realize that a reinvasion would soon lead to its self-destruction,” said the newspaper, as monitored by South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
South Korea, which has been reconciling with its neighbor, was also outraged by Abe's earlier statement.
It has tried to use its warming ties with Pyongyang to exert pressure and expressed international concerns to a ministerial-level North Korean delegation visiting the southern port city of Busan.
“We have made it very clear that the situation would get out of control if the North fires off more missiles,” said Lee Kwan-Se, spokesman of the South Korean delegation to the inter-Korean talks.
South Korea's intelligence agency told parliament there were no indications that North Korea planned to test a second long-range missile, theoretically capable of reaching American soil.
