S. Korea urges early adoption of resolution on N. Korea for nuke test

NEW YORK, June 4 (Yonhap) -- South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan Thursday urged the U.N. Security Council to adopt a strong resolution against North Korea in the coming days for its nuclear test last month, the second in nearly three years.

"I hope the U.N. Security Council will be able to adopt a resolution against
North Korea by the weekend," Yu said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency.
"North Korea's nuclear test is a great challenge to the international community,
and a strong resolution should come out soon to show the will of the
international community to address the North's provocations properly."
The top South Korean diplomat is on his way to Washington, where he is to meet
with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other U.S. officials Friday to
discuss how to deal with North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile ambitions
and preparations for a summit between South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and
U.S. President Barack Obama on June 16.
Ambassadors of the five permanent members of the council, plus South Korea and
Japan, met at the U.N. headquarters in New York Wednesday for the fifth time
since the North's nuclear blast early last week, but failed to produce an
agreement.
"China and Russia oppose bolstering interdiction of vessels, citing possible
violations of international law," Yu said. "It might be a bit easy for us to
agree to financial sanctions as it is about a technical issue of what entities to
sanction."
The U.S. and its allies are pushing forward with general arms and financial
embargoes on North Korea aimed at eventually shutting down North Korea's main
source of hard currency income and access to foreign financial institutions.
U.S. Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey met with South Korea's vice finance
minister, Hur Kyung-wook, and other Korean officials in Seoul earlier in the day
to discuss financial sanctions on North Korea and the recent findings that North
Korea circulated about $US1 million worth of "supernotes," sophisticated
counterfeit 100-dollar bills, at a South Korean port late last year.
Levey played a pivotal role in the financial sanctions on a Macau bank in 2005 to
freeze US$25 million worth of North Korean assets in that bank to effectively cut
off North Korea's access to the international financial system.
Levey is coming to Beijing Friday as a member of the U.S. delegation to Asian
capitals to discuss the U.N. sanctions on North Korea and other North Korea
issues, led by Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg.
China, North Korea's staunchest communist ally, and Russia have been lukewarm on
any strong punishment, saying any sanctions should be conducive to coaxing the
reclusive North into getting back to the six-party talks on ending its nuclear
weapons ambitions.
Steinberg was still optimistic in Seoul Wednesday, saying, "I think that the
Chinese are very actively engaged in these discussions. They've had a number of
good ideas of their own."
Yu agreed by saying, "The fact alone that China has agreed to an adoption of a
Security Council resolution against North Korea's nuclear test is substantial
progress."
China and Russia effectively thwarted the effort by the U.S. and its allies in
April to adopt a legally binding resolution on North Korea's rocket launch,
resulting in a largely symbolic council presidential statement.
"What kind of contents and wording the resolution will have is a technical issue
that should be resolved politically by the council's permanent members," he said,
with hope that contining telephone conversations among leaders and foreign
ministers of related countries will produce a result sooner or later.
In an apparent move to ensure a smooth power transition to his third and youngest
son, Kim Jong-un, North Korea's ailing leader, Kim Jong-i,l has been engaged in a
series of provocations since the inauguration of Obama in January.
Kim Jong-il anointed Jong-un as his successor soon after the second nuclear test
late last month due to his weakening health after a stroke he apparently suffered
last summer.
North Korea also has fired several missiles and threatened to boycott the
six-party talks and nullify the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War
unless the U.S. ceases what it calls hostile behavior toward the North and the
Security Council apologizes for its condemnation of North Korea's April 5 rocket
launch, which Pyongyang insists was to orbit a satellite.
Some U.S. officials and experts predict Pyongyang will return to the negotiating
table with the U.S. either bilaterally or under some other format, while others
say Pyongyang has no intention of abandoning its nuclear arsenal.