The US is looking at new ways of forcing North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons but analysts said Tuesday it has little room for maneuver if the current six-party talks remain snagged.
Any move for international sanctions against Pyongyang, they said, would have to be done via the UN Security Council, but this had already been opposed by China and Russia and was expected to be rejected even by US allies Japan and South Korea.
North Korea meanwhile continues to say it will return to negotiations only if the conditions are right -- meaning the US has to sweeten its offer on the table.
PHOTO: AFP
But Washington has ruled out giving any new incentives upfront to Pyongyang in return for disarmament, apart from endorsing a multilateral security guarantee and energy aid by the Stalinist state's neighbors.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who held meetings last week with Chinese, South Korean and Japanese leaders, has warned that North Korea faced "problems" if it failed to return to the six-party talks and that Washington was looking at "other options."
This was seen by analysts as a strong hint that Washington might resort to sanctions against the hardline communist state, a move that was flatly rejected by veto-wielding powers Moscow and Beijing three years ago.
Japan is also unlikely to back any US move on sanctions until at least another round of talks is held to break the nuclear impasse, Hideshi Takesada, from Japan's National Institute of Defense Studies, told a forum in Washington.
"If we want to have decisive sanctions, China should join and also ROK [South Korea] should join.
"But China will say `no' to discuss or argue the North Korean nuclear issue in the United Nations, China will say `no' to participate in the proliferation security initiative and China will say `no' to join in any economic sanctions with Japan and the United States," Takesada said.
He added that Rice could set the stage for the US to seek UN support for its proliferation security initiative (PSI) against North Korea.
China is not part of the US-led PSI, aimed primarily at checking trafficking of weapons of mass destruction.
Host to the six-party talks, China is a key ally of and top aid provider to cash-strapped North Korea. But it has not been using full leverage against the reclusive state, accused of nuclear proliferation and other illicit activities.
Meanwhile, Chinese officials say North Korea's premier has told them Pyongyang might be willing to return to nuclear talks, despite the North's threat to indefinitely boycott the dialogue and claims that it has expanded its atomic arsenal.
"If conditions are right in the future, North Korea is willing at any time to participate at the six-party talks," Premier Pak Pong-ju told his Chinese counterpart, Wen Jiabao (
The spokesman, Liu Jianchao (
MONEY GRAB: People were rushing to collect bills scattered on the ground after the plane transporting money crashed, which an official said hindered rescue efforts A cargo plane carrying money on Friday crashed near Bolivia’s capital, damaging about a dozen vehicles on highway, scattering bills on the ground and leaving at least 15 people dead and others injured, an official said. Bolivian Minister of Defense Marcelo Salinas said the Hercules C-130 plane was transporting newly printed Bolivian currency when it “landed and veered off the runway” at an airport in El Alto, a city adjacent to La Paz, before ending up in a nearby field. Firefighters managed to put out the flames that engulfed the aircraft. Fire chief Pavel Tovar said at least 15 people died, but
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
South Korea would soon no longer be one of the few countries where Google Maps does not work properly, after its security-conscious government reversed a two-decade stance to approve the export of high-precision map data to overseas servers. The approval was made “on the condition that strict security requirements are met,” the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. Those conditions include blurring military and other sensitive security-related facilities, as well as restricting longitude and latitude coordinates for South Korean territory on products such as Google Maps and Google Earth, it said. The decision is expected to hurt Naver and Kakao
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
RSS