UNITED NATIONS - China and Russia introduced a U.N. Security Council resolution Wednesday that would urge North Korea to suspend its nuclear program but avoid mandatory weapons-related sanctions as sought by Japan.
Japan, backed by the United States, Britain and France welcomed the new draft and said it moved closer to their position but fell short.
No vote has been scheduled on either draft after China threatened to veto the Japanese document, especially while a high-level Beijing delegation was negotiating in Pyongang over North Korea's seven missile launches on July 5.
China's delegation has told North Koreans what they should do to ensure diplomacy succeeded, said China's U.N. ambassador, Wang Guangya. But he said Beijing had not yet received an answer.
Japan's U.N. Ambassador Kenzo Oshima welcomed the Chinese-Russian initiative but said "a quick glance shows that there are very serious gaps on very important issues."
"But I doubt very much whether it will be a text that will meet the support of the co-sponsors," Oshima said. "I think it will be difficult for us to accept that as it is."
Here are excerpts from the proposal:
The Security Council,
....Expressing serious concern over missile launches on 5 July 2006 local time by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea which had a negative effect on the peace and stability in the region and beyond,
...Expressing its grave concern about DPRK's indication of possible additional launches of ballistic missiles in the near future,
...Regretting the DPRK's withdrawal from its moratorium on missile launching.
-- Strongly deplores the multiple launches by the DPRK of ballistic missiles on 5 July 2006 local time;
-- Calls upon the DPRK to reestablish its preexisting commitments to a moratorium on missile launching;
-- Calls also upon all member states not to procure missiles or missile-related items, materials, goods and technologies from the DPRK;
-- Calls also upon all member states not to procure missiles or missile-related items, materials, goods and technologies from the DPRK;
-- Urges all countries in the region, and in particular the DPRK, to show restraint and refrain from any action that might aggravate tension and continue to work on the resolution of nonproliferation concerns through political and diplomatic efforts;
-- Strongly urges the DPRK to to return immediately to the Six-Party Talks without precondition, to work towards the expeditious implementation of the 19 September 2005 Joint Statement, in particular to abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and return at an early date to the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards;
-- Calls upon all the participants of the Six-Party talks to intensify their efforts on the full implementation of the 19 September 2005 Joint Statement with a view to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and to maintain peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia and for this purpose to work together on the early resumption of the Six-Party talks...
China-Russia Text Softens Sanctions
The Chinese-Russia text "strongly deplores" the multiple missile launches by North Korea and urges, rather than demands, that Pyongang to re-establish a moratorium.
It also softens the sanctions provision by calling on U.N. members to "exercise vigilance," rather than insisting that they prevent the supply of materials, goods and technologies that could contribute to North Korea's missile program.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the Russian-Chinese draft resolution went "a long way" toward meeting concerns of those who back the Japanese resolution.
In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticized Japan as saying "that all countries have to vote as Japan wants," Interfax news agency reported. "I think this is absolutely unacceptable."
China's Wang said he would veto the Japanese proposal. "If that draft is put to a vote, without any modifications, the instructions to me is to veto it," he told reporters, the first time he has announced such plans.
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton agreed with Oshima and said he and others were prepared to put the Japanese resolution to a vote at the appropriate time.
Asked what would happen if China cast a veto, Bolton said, "There are times when you just need to make people raise their hands and show where they stand."
North Korea Objects to Financial sanctions
The delegation of senior Chinese officials remains in Pyongyang until Friday holding talks on the international standoff. It is seeking to end missile launches from North Korea and draw the isolated Communist state back to six-party disarmament talks aimed at stopping its nuclear ambitions.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told reporters in Paris that Washington and Beijing held a "common purpose"
"China's really trying, we're trying, everyone's trying, except unfortunately the DPRK," Hill said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. He was speaking in Beijing after meetings with Chinese officials who have urged North Korea back to talks.
The six-party talks between the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States have been stalled since November because Pyongyang objected to U.S. financial sanctions based on claims North Korea counterfeited U.S. currency and trafficked drugs.
In the latest sign of strains over North Korea, Beijing Wednesday urged Washington to resolve its dispute with Pyongyang over the financial sanctions.
"It's affecting the progress of the six-party talks and we hope that it will be clarified and resolved as quickly as possible," China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters.
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