North Korea Threatens Japan
North Korea issues new threats
http://today.reuters.com/misc/Printe...OREA-NORTH.xml
By Jonathan Thatcher
Fri Jul 7, 2006 2:11 PM ET
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea threatened Japan on Friday for imposing sanctions after it test-fired missiles this week, while the United States struggled to get a unified diplomatic response to the launchings.
In one sign of how difficult it has been to get everybody on the same page, South Korea said it would hold ministerial talks with the North as scheduled next week, the first high-level contact with Pyongyang since the tests.
Asked at a news conference in Chicago on Friday if a military option was on the table regarding North Korea, President Bush sidestepped the question saying: "We want to solve all problems diplomatically."
"I don't know what the man's intentions are," Bush said referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. "Is he trying to force us to do something by defying the world?"
He acknowledged that diplomatic efforts have been "slow and cumbersome."
"Some nations are more comfortable with sanctions than others," he said, adding some countries have economic interests with North Korea.
U.N. SANCTIONS
The U.N. Security Council was divided over applying sanctions to North Korea's missile programs, but Japan was pressing for a vote on Saturday on its resolution.
A new version of Japan's draft resolution, obtained by Reuters, rewords bans on the transfer of financial resources and materials that would help North Korea's missile programs.
But it does not drop the sanctions.
"China has one position. Of course we respect that but unfortunately I don't think there is any sort of a closing of as far as this meeting is concerned," Japan's U.N. ambassador, Kenzo Oshima, told reporters.
North Korea considers sanctions against it as a declaration of war, its deputy ambassador to the United Nations was quoted as saying by South Korea's Yonhap news agency late on Friday.
Defying near-universal condemnation of its latest firings, North Korea has vowed to carry out more launches and has said it will use force if the international community tries to stop it.
On Friday, Pyongyang threatened Japan if Tokyo did not lift its sanctions. Japan has banned a North Korean ferry from entering its ports for six months as part of a package of initial sanctions.
"This may force us to take stronger physical actions," Kyodo news agency quoted Song Il-ho, North Korea's ambassador in charge of diplomatic normalization talks with Japan, as saying.
North Korea launched seven missiles on Wednesday, including a long-range Taepodong-2, which some experts had said could hit Alaska. U.S. officials said it flew for less than a minute and fell into the sea west of Japan.
North Korea, however, does not have a second Taepodong-2 missile on a launch site, a U.S. defense official said on Friday, countering reports from South Korea that Pyongyang may have moved the long-range missile into place.
"If you are asking me if there's another Taepodong-2 that's on a launch pad somewhere ... no," the official said on condition of anonymity.
SEEKING DIRECT TALKS
Some analysts say North Korea was trying to remind the world that the risks of conflict were serious on the Korean peninsula, the Cold War's last frontier and home to some 30,000 U.S. troops.
North Korea has for years been trying to draw Washington into direct talks, seeking a grand deal to end the technical state of war on the peninsula that has persisted since the 1950-53 Korea War ended in an armed truce instead of a peace treaty.
Bush has rejected what many believe North Korea's isolated leader Kim Jong-il really wants -- direct talks between U.S. and North Korean officials -- and wants North Korea to resume "six-party talks."
The six nations -- Russia, China, the United States, Japan, South Korea and North Korea -- are trying to persuade the North to abandon its nuclear programs.
The talks faltered last November, after Washington threatened a bank in Macau with sanctions for helping the North launder money and pass counterfeit dollars.
In February 2005, North Korea said it possessed nuclear weapons. Since then, it has threatened several times to bolster its nuclear arsenal to counter what it sees as U.S. hostility.
