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The UN Security Council on Saturday passed a unanimous resolution calling for economic and diplomatic sanctions against North Korea but excluded the possibility of military action over the communist country¡¯s announcement that it has conducted a nuclear test.
The resolution obliges the 192 UN member nations to inspect suspicious North Korean cargo and bans them from transferring goods, products, equipment and technology related to weapons of mass destruction to the North under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter. In addition, it prevents them from transferring funds and exporting luxury goods for the nation¡¯s leadership under chairman Kim Jong-il. It urges North Korea to abandon all weapons of mass destruction and nuclear program ¡°in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner.¡± That means not only nations in the six-party talks on the nuclear issue but the international community as a whole is now pressuring the North to scrap its nuclear program.
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Pak Gil-yon, North Korea's ambassador to the United Nations meets reporters outside the Security Council chamber at U.N. headquarters on Saturday after a Security Council meeting on North Korea's nuclear test./AP
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After the resolution was passed, North Korean UN Ambassador Pak Gil-yon said his country "totally rejects the unjustifiable resolution" and vowed that if the United States increases "persistent pressure¡± on Pyongyang, the North ¡°will continue to take physical countermeasures, considering it a declaration of war.¡±
Meanwhile, the New York Times on Saturday quoted an intelligence document as saying analysis of air samples taken in the region ¡°found radioactive material that is consistent with a North Korean nuclear test.¡± The paper was quoting a document sent to lawmakers on Capitol Hill by the U.S. intelligence director on Friday. The results were still preliminary and final analysis of the data would not be completed for several days, according to the daily.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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