Security Council to vote on N Korea sanctions

UNITED NATIONS—The U.N. Security Council agreed Friday on the text of a resolution that would impose sanctions on North Korea for its claimed nuclear test and set a vote for Saturday.
Japan's U.N. Ambassador Kenzo Oshima, the current council president, and U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, who introduced the resolution, announced the vote after a brief closed council meeting to discuss the latest draft resolution.
China and South Korea have agreed to back "appropriate" measures against North Korea's declared nuclear test as world powers narrowed their differences on UN Security Council sanctions.
At talks here on Friday dominated by the crisis, President Hu Jintao and South Korean leader Roh Moo-hyun condemned the test but did not discuss a US-proposed draft resolution which reportedly drops the threat of military action.
"The two leaders agreed to support appropriate and necessary countermeasures by the UN Security Council against North Korea," Roh's chief security adviser Song Min-soon said.
Song said the leaders did not go into the specifics of the draft, adding only that "both parties will hold follow-up negotiations on the effects of UN-led or individual sanctions."
The meeting came amid intense haggling at the United Nations on the scale and nature of sanctions and ahead of a high-level US diplomatic drive to rein in the Stalinist nation.
The United States earlier said that it was closer to an agreement with China and Russia on a resolution that would impose tough sanctions, although it was unclear when a vote might take place.
Japan's foreign minister predicted a consensus within a day to impose sanctions, but not to authorize military action.
"The talks at the UN Security Council are expected to reach a conclusion within 24 hours from Thursday New York time," Taro Aso said in Tokyo, adding that Article 41 of Chapter VII was "highly likely" to be included.
Article 41 allows the Security Council to order all UN member states to impose sanctions or sever diplomatic relations with a country which does not comply with a resolution, but does not provide for military action.
US ambassador John Bolton said Washington had bridged key differences with China and Russia and was hopeful of a Security Council vote by the end of the week.
"I don't want to say we've reached agreement yet," Bolton told reporters, "but many of the significant differences have been closed, very much to our satisfaction."
China, North Korea's closest ally and biggest aid donor and trade partner, is key to agreeing a unified response in the nuclear crisis but has cautioned that "punishment is not the goal" of sanctions.
South Korea, for its part, has long championed a policy of engagement with Pyongyang, fearing it has most to lose from instability that would result from the collapse of one of the world's most impoverished and isolated states.
Speaking during a break in their talks, Roh said that he and Hu agreed to work closer together on North Korea.
"I hope we will continue to strengthen our cooperation on this issue," Roh said. "In the small group meeting we have also reached consensus towards this end."
Meanwhile Japanese news agencies reported US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would visit China, South Korea and Japan next week for high-level talks.
Citing unidentified sources in Washington, they said the trip, along with the push for sanctions at the UN Security Council, was meant to send a "strong message" to Pyongyang after Monday's shock announcement that it had tested an atom bomb for the first time.
According to the New York Times, Rice may be looking for punitive measures "over and above" those being considered at the United Nations.
The State Department in Washington was unable to confirm the reports, which said Rice would be in Japan on Tuesday or Wednesday before heading on to China and then South Korea.
Officials in Seoul, under increasing domestic pressure to punish North Korea, said Pyongyang was developing nuclear missile warheads but needs "a few more years" before it can produce them.
"Intelligence authorities believe North Korea has made primitive nuclear weapons," Defence Minister Yoon Kwang-Ung told a closed parliamentary hearing, according to a defence ministry spokesman.
"It will take a few more years for the North to deploy nuclear weapons for wartime use or miniaturise them to fit them onto missiles," he added.
An estimated 2,000 protesters angry at Roh's "sunshine" policy torched North Korean flags and portraits of its leader Kim Jong-Il in the South Korean capital.
They also called on Roh to quit dithering over how to punish Pyongyang.
"Overthrow Kim Jong-Il!" they chanted. "Kim Jong-Il is a criminal who made atomic bombs!"
Moscow announced Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov would visit Seoul next Tuesday for talks with his South Korean opposite number Han Myeong-Sook on the crisis.
The RIA Novosti news agency said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev had flown Friday to North Korea for talks.
The diplomatic shuttle means senior officials from all sides involved in six-nation talks on Pyongyang's nuclear programme will be in the region next week.
The talks, which North Korea has boycotted since last November, groups the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.
Japan meanwhile approved its own bilateral sanctions, including a complete ban on imports and all visits by North Korean ships.
North Koreans crammed boats with bicycles, appliances and other goods they could get their hands on as they scrambled to leave Japan by a midnight (1500 GMT) deadline.—Agencies