UN panel approves N. Korea sanctions

UNITED NATIONS -- The Security Council unanimously approved a resolution yesterday that imposes strict economic sanctions on North Korea for its reported nuclear test but specifically excludes the use of force.

The agreement by the 15-member council, which followed nearly a week of intense negotiations, demands that the reclusive regime eliminate its nuclear program. The US-sponsored measure bans shipments of military hardware and supplies, calls on countries to inspect cargo leaving and arriving in North Korea, and freezes financial assets related to North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The resolution says the sanctions could be lifted once North Korea returns to six-party talks on its nuclear program, which Pyongyang has boycotted for 13 months.

President Bush praised the council's vote.

``This action by the United Nations, which was swift and tough, says that we are united in our determination to see to it that the Korean peninsula is nuclear-weapons free," Bush said in Washington.

But North Korea's ambassador to the UN, Pak Gil Yon , angrily rejected the measure and vowed that his government would ignore it. He accused the council of adopting ``a coercive resolution."

``The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is ready for talks, dialogue, and confrontation," Pak said. ``If the United States increases pressure upon the Democratic People's Republic of Korea persistently, the DPRK will continue to take physical countermeasures considering it as a declaration of war."

Pak then stormed out of the chamber.

North Korea prompted the showdown at the world body by announcing Monday that it had conducted a nuclear test, making it possibly the world's ninth nuclear power. The United States has not declared with certainty that the test occurred, although intelligence officials said Friday that the government had detected radioactive debris consistent with a nuclear explosion.

Henry Sokolski , executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center in Washington, called passage of the resolution a ``good start" toward reining in North Korea's nuclear program.

``North Korea is now officially a pariah. They have the status Libya had throughout the 1990s and South Africa had throughout the 1980s," said Sokolski, a policy adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney when he was secretary of defense under President George H. W. Bush.

Yesterday's vote took place after China and Russia were assured that the language in the resolution would not threaten a military confrontation.

Although the measure was adopted under Chapter Seven of the UN charter, which allows for military action, the United States agreed to enforce sanctions calling for naval inspections of cargo entering and leaving North Korean ports under Article 41 of the chapter, which does not authorize force. Military action would require a second resolution adopted under Article 42.

Despite the compromise, China remained concerned that forcibly searching for contraband items related to North Korea's nuclear weapons program could spark confrontation.

``This has to be exercised with great care," said Wang Guangya , China's ambassador to the UN.

Both China and Russia are concerned that a conflict on the Korean peninsula would lead to a flood of North Korean refugees on their territory.

The US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, said he expected China to at least monitor goods entering and leaving North Korea over the land border because Beijing voted for the resolution.

``They are bound by this resolution," Bolton told reporters. ``I can't believe that China won't adhere to obligations that the Security Council has imposed."

After the walkout by the North Korean delegate, Bolton told the council: ``I'm not going to waste any of our time responding to what the representative of the DPRK has said, but I want to call your attention to that empty chair."

Pointing at the seat, he called Pak's angry exit from the chamber ``the contemporary equivalent of Nikita Khrushchev pounding his shoe on the desk of the General Assembly," referring to the Soviet leader's act of protest at the UN General Assembly in 1960.

That drew a retort from Vitaly Churkin, Russia's UN ambassador, who warned that ``even in an emotional state, not to use inappropriate analogies."

Kenzo Oshima , Japan's ambassador to the UN, said, ``The Security Council has passed one of the most important resolutions in recent times." Japan's new government imposed unilateral measures on North Korea last week that included a ban on trade with the communist state and a six-month ban on travel to Japan by all North Korean government officials.

The resolution adopted yesterday deplored North Korea's announcement to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 2003 and demanded that it return to the treaty. It also expressed ``profound concern that the test claimed by the DPRK has generated increased tension in the region and beyond."

The resolution also demands that North Korea ``eliminate its nuclear weapons and nuclear program in a complete, verifiable, and irreversible manner" and ``suspend all activities related to its ballistic missile program."

The United States and other nations will now step up diplomatic pressure on North Korea to give up its nuclear program. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced that she would visit China, Japan, and South Korea this week to discuss implementation of the resolution.

Sokolski, the analyst, said he believes the UN resolution is bound to put new pressure on Iran, which the United States accuses of developing nuclear weapons. ``It has to spook Tehran a bit," he said.

Bryan Bender of the Globe staff contributed to this report from Washington. Material from wire services was also included.