UN Mulls Harsh Sanctions on North

The UN Security Council worked on negotiations on October 11 to arrange sanctions against North Korea because of their nuclear test.

The Security Council held a conference attended by ambassadors on this day, including permanent members of Security Council such as the United States, China, Russia, the United Kingdom, and France, and Japan, the chairman country of the Security Council for October. They resumed to compromise on the second draft from the U.S.

Ambassadors of the six countries agreed on the principle of sanctions against North Korea, but they could not make any compromise on issues such as the range of sanctions and of invoking Chapter 7 of the UN charter.

China claimed that if the whole Chapter 7 of the UN charter is invoked, it could jeopardize the Korean peninsula, therefore Article 42, which opens the possibility of military sanctions, should not be cited.

In addition, they argued that it is not desirable to have too comprehensive provisions about financial and trading sanctions against North Korea. China suggested those should be limited to the fields which are related to North Korea’s nuclear weapons.

The U.S. and Japan proposed an amendment again on October 12 according to China’s claim.

John R. Bolton, America’s ambassador to the UN, said, “I wish we can adopt the final resolution with additional negotiations by at least October 13.”

However, it is heard that the amendment the U.S. proposed on October 12 included drastic sanctions Japan proposed: an embargo on North Korean ships and aircrafts; a prohibition of North Korean authorities’ entry and passage; a ban on imports of North Korean goods. China and Russia strongly object to these sanctions, thereby it is estimated that the resolution of sanctions against North Korea might pass after October 13.

kong@donga.com