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Activists shout slogans supporting UN sanctions to punish North Korea for its missile tests last week, at a press conference in Seoul on Monday./Newsis
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Seoul will not support a UN resolution co-sponsored by seven Security Council members including Japan, the U.S. and France to impose sanctions on North Korea for test-firing seven missiles last week. A government official on Monday hinted as much, saying it was ¡°not desirable¡± for South Korea as a non-member of the Security Council to express its position on a particular UN resolution.
Vice Foreign Minister Lee Kyu-hyung on the same day called in Japanese Ambassador to Korea Shotaro Oshima to inform him the government does not support the resolution. ¡°We can¡¯t be in the same boat with Japan all the way,¡± Foreign Ministry spokesman Choo Kyu-ho told international news agencies.
Seoul¡¯s lack of support makes it unlikely that South Korea, the U.S. and Japan will cooperate to resolve the missile issue. The U.S. chief nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill, who is on an emergency trip to rally Washington¡¯s allies around, in Seoul stressed the need to ¡°speak in one voice¡± to address the matter, but the cracks are already beginning to appear.
¡±We don¡¯t need to express a position on a resolution that has only a slim chance of passing¡± due to opposition from permanent Security Council member and Pyongyang ally China, a government official said.
Sources say the government is afraid of provoking Pyongyang by publicly backing the resolution. Cheong Wa Dae has attempted to calm waters stirred by the missile tests by characterizing them as a ¡°political matter¡± rather than a security threat and going ahead with scheduled inter-Korean ministerial talks. Support for the UN resolution would sit ill with that business-as-usual approach.
Drafted by Japan, the resolution would ban countries from procuring missiles or related "items, materials goods and technology" from North Korea, or transferring financial resources that could be related to the reclusive country's weapons programs. That is capable of wide interpretation.
If the resolution passes as is, Seoul expects inter-Korean economic cooperation projects such as tourism to the North¡¯s Mt. Kumgang and the Kaesong Industrial Complex as well as South Korean direct aid to become subject to sanctions, making assistance to North Korea impossible without approval from the UN. The government says the resolution would immediately affect inter-Korean projects involving considerable cash transactions. North Korea has not disclosed where and how it has spent profits from Mt. Kumgang tourism and the Kaesong complex, inviting suspicion that it funnels them to its powerful military.
¡°A broad interpretation of the resolution would prevent us from helping North Korea in the way we would like to,¡± a government official said. ¡°It could be read as a regulation giving the UN and other countries legitimate cause to take issue with our North Korea policies.¡± In other words, the U.S. and Japan, who favor harsh sanctions, could use the resolution as a means of pressuring Seoul to throttle back aid for Pyongyang.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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