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.