Sanctions can resolve nuclear row: Seoul

Sanctions can resolve nuclear row: Seoul

SEOUL (Reuter): President Kim Young-sam, denouncing North
Korea's refusal to submit to nuclear inspections as an "outright
challenge" to the world, said yesterday sanctions would now be
the only option to resolve the deepening dispute.

Kim said Seoul's Stalinist neighbor had seriously damaged the
possibility of knowing the truth about its nuclear program by
carrying out refueling of a reactor without supervision by the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

"I can't help feeling angry at the outright challenge to the
majority of countries in the world and the consensus is that
there is no other way but to seek sanctions against North Korea,"
Kim told a national security meeting here.

"North Korea's nuclear development is aimed at us. We are now
in a desperate position to use all our means to block the nuclear
development," Kim added. "It is our irreversible position that
the North should not possess even half a bomb."

Kim predicted the Korean Peninsula would remain tense for the
time being.

The North has repeatedly issued threats that any sanctions
would mean war.

The United States began discussing sanctions with other UN
Security Council members after UN inspectors said last week
Pyongyang was spurning nuclear-plant inspection rules it had
agreed to under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Washington, vowing to hold its course in the crisis, has said
North's Korea's belligerence would not deter it from seeking
sanctions.

North Korea on Tuesday hurled further rhetoric at the United
Nations, flatly refusing to open two sites believed to contain
radioactive waste.

UN members have suggested that inspection of these sites might
make up for evidence lost by North Korea's refusal to let IAEA
inspectors sample spent fuel now being removed from North Korea's
five-megawatt nuclear reactor at Yongbyon.

The head of the IAEA said on Tuesday that it might never know
the truth about North Korea's mystery-shrouded nuclear program.

Even with full cooperation from North Korea, which looked
highly unlikely, the full picture might never be discerned, IAEA
director general Hans Blix told his board of governors.

South Korean Foreign Minister Han Sung-joo was to begin a two-
day trip to Beijing yesterday for talks with Chinese leaders on
the issue of sanctions against the North.

The visit was hurriedly arranged at the order of President
Kim, foreign ministry officials said.

Seoul fears China, North Korea's traditional ally, might veto
a possible Security Council resolution calling for punitive
measures.

Yesterday's official China Daily said Beijing was strongly
opposed to sanctions against the North.

"Sanctions are not a sensible choice, as they would only
aggravate the crisis," the paper quoted Chinese Foreign Minister
Qian Qichen as saying on Tuesday.

Qian repeated China's call for negotiations among the four
parties it says are directly involved: North Korea, South Korea,
the United States and the IAEA.