China pressures North Korea to return to talks

Talks in Pyongyang
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei was still in North Korea, Jiang said, contradicting earlier Korean media reports that he had returned home. Vice Premier Hui Liangyu, who began a six-day visit to North Korea on Monday, was also still there.

Senior North Korean official Yang Hyong Sop arrived in Beijing, meanwhile, for a visit that would include a meeting with China's Hu, Xinhua news agency said.

A State Department official said on Sunday Washington believed it had the backing in the 15-member council Tuesday it intended to call for a vote on the binding resolution eventually. “There is no change in our basic stance,” Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters.

Foreign Minister Taro Aso said separately that Japan wanted to see a decision on the resolution before the July 15-17 Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg, and that the minimum content would be a ban on providing missile technology to North Korea.

China’s U.N. ambassador, Wang Guangya, told reporters on Monday that a resolution branding North Korea a threat to international peace and security “could be used by member states to take actions which could make the situation even worse.”

Asked if he meant military force, Wang said: “certainly.”

China’s draft contains nearly all the elements of Japan’s rival resolution but is not legally binding. The Japanese resolution invokes Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which makes it mandatory for all U.N. members and in certain circumstances lays the groundwork for military force.

Beijing in hot seat
Beijing is now in the hot seat as the world watches to see whether it can use its influence with North Korea to rein in its prickly neighbor’s missile and nuclear arms programs.

In another sign of the search for a diplomatic solution, South Korea planned to focus on the missile launch and the North’s nuclear programs in North-South ministerial talks originally due to concentrate on economic matters.

The talks were due to open later on Tuesday in the southern port city of Pusan.

Japan’s ties with both South Korea and China have been chilly since Koizumi took office in 2001 and began visits to a war shrine his critics see as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism.

The missile tests have notably widened the rift between Seoul and Tokyo. On Tuesday South Korea’s presidential office called remarks by Japanese leaders on the crisis reckless and arrogant.

In 1998, North Korea launched a long-range missile which flew over Japan before splashing into the sea, prompting Tokyo to seek a stern response at the United Nations.

Wednesday’s test-firing of no fewer than seven missiles has rekindled a debate in Japan over whether Tokyo should develop the capability to make pre-emptive strikes and whether these would violate its post-World War Two pacifist constitution.

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