Japan, allies agree N. Korea launch would violate U.N. resolutions+

WASHINGTON, March 28 Kyodo - Japan, the United States and South Korea agreed Friday that any North Korean rocket launch would violate relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions, said Japan's chief negotiator to the six-party talks on denuclearizing North Korea.

Akitaka Saiki said he and his U.S. and South Korean counterparts reaffirmed
that they will take a launch, once conducted, to the U.N. body immediately.
''A missile launch, which North Korea may say is a satellite launch, would
constitute a violation of U.N. resolutions and a gravely provocative act, no
matter how the North describes it,'' he told reporters.
''We will immediately discuss the matter at the U.N. Security Council,'' Saiki
said. ''I feel there is no difference on this (among the three countries).''
It was the first trilateral meeting of the three nations' top nuclear envoys
since the start of U.S. President Barack Obama's administration. The meeting
was apparently aimed at demonstrating the three countries' unified stance
against Pyongyang's rocket launch.
North Korea claims it will launch a communications satellite between April 4
and 8. Japan, South Korea and the United States believe this to be a guise for
test-firing a long-range ballistic missile.
Japan, the United States and South Korea have repeatedly warned that such a
launch would violate U.N. resolutions condemning past launches by the North.
A U.N. sanctions resolution passed in 2006 after North Korea announced its
first-ever nuclear test requires Pyongyang to suspend ''all activities related
to its ballistic missile program.'' The three countries believe even a
satellite launch would be a violation as it would employ similar technology.
Saiki declined to comment on North Korea's threat to pull out of the six-party
talks in the event of any attempt in the United Nations to censure a planned
rocket launch.
''North Korea must sincerely listen to the voice of the international community
and refrain from any provocative act that would threaten the peace and
stability in Northeast Asia,'' he said.
North Korea warned Thursday that even discussion by the U.N. Security Council
of its planned rocket launch will be viewed as a ''hostile act'' and prompt it
to reverse its denuclearization efforts.
''We confirmed the importance of moving the six-party process forward in trying
to denuclearize North Korea at an early date for the peace and stability in
Northeast Asia,'' Saiki said.
But ''a missile launch and six-party talks are not unrelated. If a missile is
launched, it will naturally affect six-party talks. That is what we have to
brace ourselves for,'' he said.
The six-party negotiations, which involve the two Koreas, the United States,
China, Japan and Russia, have been stalled since December, when they broke down
over differences on ways to verify North Korea's nuclear programs.
Saiki, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs
Bureau, met Wi Sung Lac, the new South Korean chief delegate at the six-way
talks, and Sung Kim, the new U.S. chief delegate.
Prior to the trilateral meeting, the three chief delegates held bilateral
talks, in which U.S. special representative on North Korea policy Stephen
Bosworth took part.
==Kyodo
2009-03-28 22:30:24