U.N. Security Council likely to unanimously adopt North Korea resolution
Kyodo News (Japan)  | July 15, 2006
 

The U.N. Security Council is expected to unanimously adopt a resolution on North Korea over its recent missile tests on Saturday afternoon, according to a Japanese government source in Tokyo.
Japan and the United States have agreed to delete references to Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter, which would have paved the way for economic sanctions or military action against Pyongyang over its sudden missile launches July 5, the source said.

The two countries instead agreed to confirm ''verbally'' at the time of the Security Council vote that the resolution will have binding power, the source said, adding this agreement was reached by Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe and White House National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley over the phone.

The Japan-U.S. accord was confirmed during telephone talks between Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso and his U.S. counterpart Condoleezza Rice, the source said.

Six U.N. Security Council members, including Japan, held ambassadorial talks Saturday morning seeking to formulate a unified draft resolution on North Korea's missile launches.

The five others are the United States, Russia, Britain, China, and France -- the council's permanent members. The 15-member Security Council is expected to hold a vote in the afternoon.

Britain and France made a compromise proposal Friday to try to break the impasse, calling for deleting reference to Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter from a revised draft resolution Japan and the United States submitted earlier Friday, U.N. sources said.

After the talks on Saturday morning, Japanese U.N. Ambassador Kenzo Oshima said he had good consultations with China and Russia. He will report the outcome of the talks to his home government, he added.

Japan hopes to put a draft resolution to a vote a the end of Saturday afternoon although there are still difficult tasks, Oshima said. ''We should not stop our efforts to reach a compromising position.''

Ahead of the consultations, Chinese U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya said China supports the British-French compromise proposal.

''If Japan still wishes to have Chapter 7, that's the end of the exercise,'' Wang told reporters.

John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said, ''The U.S. is going to support a resolution with the full force of Chapter 7.''

After the consultations, Bolton said the four countries -- the United States, Japan, China and Russia -- are ''getting closer'' to a compromise.

In St. Petersburg, Russia, U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin met Saturday ahead of the Group of Eight summit and agreed to cooperate to come up with ''common language'' on a U.N. Security Council resolution on North Korea for its missile launches.

After the meeting, Hadley said the United States wants a ''tough'' U.N. Security Council resolution on North Korea with ''very clear'' language against its missile launches.

But Hadley declined to comment directly when asked whether the United States still wants the envisioned resolution to refer to Chapter 7, which China and Russia oppose.

China and Russia, North Korea's closest allies, oppose any reference to Chapter 7 in a U.N. resolution on the missile launches.

China says it will veto a resolution if the text contains reference to Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which provides legal grounds for sanctions on North Korea and could open the way for military action.

On Friday, the envoys adjourned their talks seeking to formulate a unified resolution without an accord, failing to agree on key elements as to whether U.N. action on North Korea will be made mandatory and legally binding.

The latest revised text of the resolution, co-sponsored by Japan, the United States and six other council members, called for Security Council members to act under Article 40 of Chapter 7 in a move to soften their stance.

Article 40 stipulates ''provisional measures'' to be taken ahead of imposing tougher steps such as economic sanctions.

The latest draft, a copy of which was obtained by Kyodo News, also used the word ''requires'' rather than ''decides'' that member states prevent weapons-related goods from being exported to or imported from North Korea.

The resolution described Pyongyang's missile firing as endangering the region's peace, stability and security.

The compromise Britain and France proposed seeks to insert a sentence saying the U.N. Security Council will act under its special responsibility for international peace and security, rather than referring to Chapter 7.