Learn Mandarin: DPRK warns South against sanctions

WORLD / Asia-Pacific

DPRK warns South against sanctions

(AP)
Updated: 2006-10-26 09:29

DPRK 'has no plan for second nuke test'

Seoul, South Korea - North Korea (DPRK -- Democratic People's Republic of
Korea) warned South Korea against joining international sanctions, saying
Wednesday that its neighbor would "pay a high price" if it joins the
US-led drive to punish the nation for its nuclear test. (More on North
Korea Nuke Issue )

The statement from the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification
of the Fatherland came as South Korea struggles to determine how it
should enforce the UN sanctions, including whether to help interdict
North Korean cargo ships suspected of transporting materials for
unconventional weapons.

Soldiers march during a military exercise in Pochon, about 46 km (29
miles) northeast of Seoul, October 23, 2006. North Korea warned South
Korea against joining international sanctions, saying Wednesday that its
neighbor would "pay a high price" if it joins the US-led drive to punish
the nation for its nuclear test. [Reuters]Photo Gallery on DPRK Nuke Issue

"If the South Korean authorities end up joining US-led moves to sanction
and stifle (the North) we will regard it as a declaration of
confrontation against its own people ... and take corresponding
measures," the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the
Fatherland said in a statement.

US President Bush dismissed North Korea's statement, saying leader Kim
Jong Il was probing for weaknesses in the international community.

"The leader of North Korea likes to threaten," Bush told reporters in
Washington. "In my judgment, what he's doing is testing the will of the
five countries that are working together to convince him there's a better
way forward for his people."

The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a sanctions resolution five
days after the North's Oct. 9 test, and a South Korean task force met
this week to determine how the country should address the measures,
including what to do about joint economic projects with the North.

South Korea's participation in the sanctioning the North is important
because the country is one of the main aid providers to the country,
along with China.

But both countries have been reluctant to impose stern measures against
their neighbor. China voted for the resolution but is concerned that
excessive measures could worsen the situation. South Korea has expressed
similar concerns, although there was no immediate response to Wednesday's
statement from North Korea.

"If North-South relations collapse due to reckless and imprudent
sanctions against us the South Korean authorities will be fully
responsible for it and will have to pay a high price," said the
statement, carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

A top US diplomat said North Korea's test has brought China and the
United States closer together and both countries want a unified response.

"China has been in a very important relationship with us for many years
and at no time did we feel any closer together with China than we felt in
the wake of the North Korea provocation," US Assistant Secretary of State
Christopher Hill told reporters during a meeting of Pacific leaders in
Fiji.

"I think the Chinese understand that the North Korean ... decision to
proceed with a nuclear weapons program is really something quite beyond
the pale and something we need to all speak with one voice about," said
Hill, the chief US envoy to six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear
program.

The resolution gave member countries 30 days from its Oct. 14 adoption to
report on implementing the sanctions.

The South Korean panel, which met for the first time Tuesday, also is
trying to decide how to handle the interdiction of North Korean cargo
ships and what to do about the economic projects that have been
criticized for providing hard currency to the North. The United States
suspects the funds might have helped the North's arms programs.

One is a tourism program run by South Korea at North Korea's Diamond
Mountain and the other is a South Korean-run industrial complex in the
North Korean city of Kaesong. The North has received at least US$900
million under the projects since the 1990s.

South Korea prizes the projects as symbols of reconciliation and has been
unwilling to halt them. But it plans to make adjustments to meet Seoul's
requirements under the sanctions.

Also at issue was whether South Korea would expand its participation in a
US-led drive to interdict North Korean ships and aircraft suspected of
carrying weapons of mass destruction or related material.

South Korea has been reluctant to participate fully in the Proliferation
Security Initiative because of concerns it could lead to clashes with
North Korea and undermine efforts to persuade the state to give up its
nuclear program through diplomacy.

South Korea has only sent observers and attended briefings on the program.

South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok, a strong supporter of
engagement with North Korea, offered to resign Wednesday because of the
nuclear test. Critics have accused Lee of being too supportive of North
Korea, but even if his resignation is accepted, it is not likely to lead
to any immediate change in the South's engagement policy.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, also warned that pressuring
the North could backfire.

"One should never lead the situation into an impasse, one should never
put one of the negotiating sides in a position from which it virtually
has no way out but one: an escalation of the situation," Putin said in
televised comments broadcast in Moscow.

Learn Mandarin

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

DPRK warns South against sanctions

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