UNITED NATIONS — Western powers joined with North Korea’s key allies today on a proposal that would impose tough new sanctions against the reclusive communist nation for its second nuclear test, paving the way for quick approval by the U.N. Security Council.
The sanctions would allow foreign countries to stop and search ships heading to and from North Korea, pending approval from the country whose flag the vessel was flying.
The resolution does not, however, authorize the use of force should the stopped ships refuse to allow searches, but the sanctions should allow for more ships to be checked.
U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice presented the draft resolution to the 15-member council saying it would create “an unprecedented, detailed” regime in which nations “are expected to inspect suspected contraband cargo” on land and the high seas, and then seize and dispose of any contraband.
“This sanctions regime if passed by the Security Council will bite, and bite in a meaningful way,” she said. “We think that the message that the council will send should it adopt this resolution is that North Korea’s behavior is unacceptable, they must pay a price.”
The agreement comes after two weeks of closed-door negotiations by ambassadors from the five permanent Security Council nations — the U.S., Britain and France, and the North’s closest allies China and Russia — as well as the two countries most closely affected by the test, Japan and South Korea.
Past sanctions, however, have had little effect in dissuading the regime from pursuing its nuclear ambitions.
The draft, obtained by The Associated Press, would expand an arms embargo against North Korea, seek to curtail the North’s financial dealings with the outside world, and freeze assets of North Korean companies.
It would also enhance the inspection of cargo heading to and from North Korea suspected of carrying banned weapons, nuclear and missile-related material, including on the high seas.
Turkey’s U.N. Ambassador Baki Ilkin, president of the Security Council this month, said the nine countries that were not part of the negotiations will send the draft to their governments and “we will meet again once they have their instructions.”
On Monday, Pyongyang’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said the country will consider any sanctions a declaration of war and will respond to it with “due corresponding self-defense measures.”
On Tuesday, North Korea said it would use nuclear weapons in a “merciless offensive” if provoked.
The draft would have the Security Council condemn “in the strongest terms” the North’s nuclear test on May 25 “in violation and flagrant disregard” of the sanctions resolution it approved after Pyongyang’s first nuclear test in October 2006.
It would also demand a halt to any further nuclear tests or missile launches and reiterate the council’s demand that the North abandon all nuclear weapons, return to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, allow U.N. nuclear inspections, and rejoin six-party talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear program.
The draft authorizes searches of ships on the high seas suspected of carrying banned weapons and nuclear material if the nation whose flag the ship was flying give approval.
If the country doesn’t give its consent — a virtual certainty if it was a North Korean ship — the flag nation is required to direct the vessel to proceed to “an appropriate and convenient port for the required inspection by the local authorities.”
The draft resolution does, however, not authorize the use of force to compel a ship to port.
The resolution also requires all countries not to provide fuel or other supplies to North Korean vessels if there are reasonable grounds to suspect they are carrying prohibited weapons or other items.
And it calls on all countries to inspect cargo headed for or coming from North Korea suspected of containing prohibited material.
It would ban North Korea from exporting all weapons, which would eliminate a significant source of revenue for North Korea, and it would ban the import of all arms except light weapons, expanding an arms embargo on heavy weapons imposed by the Security Council after the 2006 underground test.
Rice said the draft also calls for “a very broad set of new authorities” to keep North Korea from getting the financing for its weapons programs.
The draft calls on the 192 U.N. member states to prevent financial institutions or individuals from providing financial services, funds or resources that could contribute to North Korea’s “nuclear-related, ballistic missile-related, or other weapons of mass destruction-related programs or activities.” It says this can be done by freezing the funds or assets.
Meanwhile, South Korea has informed the U.S. of up to 20 overseas bank accounts North Korea may use for counterfeiting and money laundering, a report said.
The banking information could help Washington identify targets as it considers punishing North Korea with its own financial sanctions apart from any U.N. measures.
South Korea gave the U.S. the information about some 10 to 20 North Korean bank accounts in China and Switzerland at Washington’s request, South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported, citing an unidentified government official.
South Korea’s spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, the Foreign Ministry and the Finance Ministry said they could not confirm the report.
The North has long been accused of counterfeiting $100 bills and money laundering — accusations it denies.
Analysts say North Korea has an exclusive department, known as Room 39 or Bureau 39, to control illicit business activities such as counterfeiting, drug smuggling and weapons sales.
Room 39 has 120 foreign trade companies under its jurisdiction, Lim Soo-ho, a research fellow at the Samsung Economic Research Institute in Seoul, told The Associated Press.
Though the bureau formally falls under the ruling Workers’ Party, in reality it is directly controlled by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, he said.
Lim said North Korea earns U.S. dollars and other foreign currencies through drug trafficking and other illicit activities. The U.S. government claims North Korea also sells military technology such as missiles.
A 2007 report published by the Millennium Project of the World Federation of United Nations Associations said North Korea makes an estimated $500 million to $1 billion annually from criminal enterprises.
In 2005, the U.S. imposed financial restrictions on Banco Delta Asia, a bank in the Chinese territory of Macau, over allegations of money laundering and other financial crimes involving North Korea. The move effectively cut the North off from the global financial system.
Former South Korean Foreign Minister Han Sung-joo doubted the U.N. sanctions would work.
“Sanctions will only drive them away further, alienate them,” Han said. “They will use the sanctions as an excuse to maybe start their uranium enrichment program, but then, they would have done it anyway. So there’s no easy answer.”
Faced with growing international pressure, North Korea fought back with tough words today.
The Rodong Sinmun newspaper described the nuclear protection provided by the U.S. to South Korea and Japan as an “undisguised declaration of nuclear war” against North Korea.
“It’s self-evident that we cannot just sit by and wait to die when the U.S. publicly declared it will attack our republic with nuclear weapons,” the newspaper said in a commentary carried by the country’s official Korean Central News Agency.
Also today, South Korean Vice Defense Minister Chang Soo-man described “brisk movements” by North Korea’s military in the wake of last month’s nuclear test. No further detail was available.
He told lawmakers that South Korea has been preparing for any North Korean provocation, the ruling Grand National Party said in a statement.
The missile and nuclear tests come amid reports that Kim has chosen his third and youngest son, Kim Jong Un, as his successor as leader of the communist nation of 24 million.
Little is known about the 26-year-old. Japan’s Asahi TV broadcast a photo of a man in sunglasses it claimed was Kim Jong Un.
But South Korea’s Yonhap news agency later identified him as a South Korean citizen named Bae who claimed the image was taken from a photo he posted to a blog in February.
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