Monday his US counterpart John Bolton outlined a raft of punitive measures under Chapter Seven, including international inspection of all cargo to and from North Korea, new financial curbs targeting Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs, and restrictions on exports of goods with military uses and sales of luxury items.

Japanese Ambassador Kenzo Oshima, the president of the 15-member Security Council for October, put forward even tougher measures such as bans on North Korean ships and aircraft from entering or landing in member states' territories and on all North Korean products as well as a travel ban targeting senior North Korean government officials.

The key question is whether China and Russia, which despite their traditional close ties with Pyongyang have strongly condemned its first-ever nuclear test Monday, will now support such harsh measures.

The punitive measures were contained in a draft Security Council resolution which Washington and Tokyo want to see adopted quickly.

"We want to see some elements from Chapter Seven," Wang told reporters after a second round of private consultations with his British, French, Japanese, Russian and US counterparts.

"We need to have a firm, constructive, appropriate but prudent response," he added.

Bolton described Wang's comment on Chapter Seven as "significant" although he conceded that "We don't have complete agreement on this."

"But we making progress. We are at the point we can try to narrow some of the differences we do have and we'll begin to look at that tomorrow.

Chapter Seven of the UN Charter provides for tough sanctions on countries not complying with Security Council resolutions including, in the last resort, military action.

Envoys of the council's five veto-wielding members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Japan agreed to hold further talks on North Korea Wednesday in parallel with separate discussions by council experts trying to craft an acceptable resolution.

"Obviously we still have some differences of views with respect to some specifics that we'd like to see included," Oshima said. "These are precisely the issues that we are working on, at expert level and at ambassador level."

The US suggestion of mandating international inspection of all cargo in and out of North Korea attracted particular attention.

One option being considered is to have US and allied naval forces intercept and search all ships entering and leaving North Korea under the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI).

The PSI was launched by US President George W. Bush three years ago to stop the flow of weapons of mass destruction around the world and to interdict any potential shipment transported by sea, air or land.

The PSI core group is made up of Australia, Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain and the United States.

Bolton said that although the Chinese have not joined the PSI core group, "they have always been supportive of its objective" and "have cooperated with us in PSI interdiction efforts."

earlier related report
Six Major Powers Seek Accord On North Korea Sanctions
United Nations (AFP) Oct 10 - The UN Security Council's five veto-wielding members plus Japan said more talks were needed to agree a package of tough sanctions to punish North Korea for its nuclear test and force it to resume stalled disarmament talks. Envoys of Britain, France, China, Russia and the United States held a one-hour meeting Tuesday and agreed to meet again later in the day as experts of the 15-member council continued discussions on a tough draft resolution under Chapter Seven of the UN charter.

"There's general understanding about the need to get our act together -- and fast," said Japanese Ambassador Kenzo Oshima, the council president for this month. "The discussion is ongoing. ... We are going to need more consultations both at the expert level and at ambassador level."

He said the consultations were focusing on the scope of punitive measures and whether to invoke Chapter Seven of the UN charter, which authorizes tough sanctions or even as a last resort military action in cases of "threat to international peace and security".

Monday, US Ambassador John Bolton outlined a raft of punitive measures under Chapter Seven, including international inspection of all cargo to and from North Korea, new financial curbs targeting Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs, and restrictions on exports of goods with military uses and sales of luxury items.

Oshima put forward even tougher measures such as bans on North Korean ships and aircraft from entering or landing in member states' territories and on all North Korean products as well as a travel ban targeting senior North Korean government officials.

The key question is whether China and Russia, which despite their traditional close ties with Pyongyang have strongly condemned the nuclear test, will be ready to support such harsh measures.

"I think there has to be some punitive actions but also these actions have to be appropriate," Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya told reporters as he headed for the talks with his British, French, Japanese, Russian and US counterparts.

Asked whether his comments meant support for invoking Chapter Seven, Wang replied cryptically: "If it's punitive, it implies something."

"We need to have a firm, constructive, appropriate but prudent response," he added.

Bolton, for his part, said Tuesday's meeting among the six envoys was "very good" but bemoaned the fact that the Russians had not received any instructions.

"There are substantial areas of agreement, but the Russians don't have instructions," he noted.

In Moscow, the foreign ministry said Tuesday that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed possible joint steps to halt North Korea's nuclear weapons program in a telephone conference with counterparts from China, Japan, South Korea and the United States on Monday.

"The Russian side indicated its readiness to participate in joint efforts by the interested parties aimed at a peaceful diplomatic resolution of the situation surrounding North Korea," the ministry said.

Russia is a participant (along with China, Japan, the United States and the two Koreas) in the stalled six-party talks process aimed at persuading Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons program in exchange for trade and security rewards.

Meanwhile, Japan urged the international community Tuesday to slap sanctions on North Korea, while South Korea, which is not a Security Council member, said it opposed any UN resolution involving military action.

"We support a UN resolution, but our position is that the resolution must not include any military measures because of its possible impact on the Korean peninsula," South Korean Prime Minister Han Myung-Sook told parliament.

But the secretive Pyongyang regime showed no sign of backing down, and an official warned it could fire a nuclear warhead unless it secured concessions from the United States, the nation it says is the reason for needing a nuclear weapon.

North Korea called it a de facto "declaration of war" when the Security Council imposed limited sanctions after its test-launch of several missiles in July, and an official indicated Tuesday the regime would not bow to pressure.

The unnamed official, quoted by South Korea's Yonhap news agency, said the country's underground nuclear test was an indication it wanted direct talks with the United States.

earlier related report
China holds the key as US pushes for tough sanctions against NKorea
Washington (AFP) Oct 10 - With little economic leverage of its own to bring to bear on North Korea, Washington must count on a reluctant China to carry the burden of sanctions aimed to forcing Pyongyang to give up its nuclear ambitions. Convincing China, and to a lesser extent Russia, to agree to tough sanctions on North Korea following the announcement it had carried out its first nuclear test explosion was at the center of debate Tuesday at the UN Security Council in New York.

China's UN ambassador, Wang Guangya, acknowledged on his way into the talks that "there has to be some punitive actions" against Pyongyang in response to the reported nuclear test.

But he was vague about how far Beijing is willing to go, saying any UN measures needed to be "appropriate" and "prudent."

The United States already has robust economic and trade sanctions in place against Pyongyang, with the result that "US economic interaction with North Korea remains minimal," according to the State Department.

Washington is hoping, however, to use its considerable military might to help enforce a partial sea and air blockade aimed at preventing North Korea from receiving materiel for its weapons program or selling arms to others.

But even such a cordon slapped on North Korea by US partners in the so-called Proliferation Security Initiative launched by US President George W. Bush three years ago would prove fruitless unless China enforced the same measures along its lengthy land border with the reclusive Stalinist state.

China has so far declined to join the multinational initiative, and John Bolton, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said gaining Beijing's "broader cooperation" in such containment operations was one of the elements under negotiation.

The sanctions being pushed by Washington include halting all trade and financial transactions linked to North Korean weapons programs and starving the regime's leadership of luxury goods.

Beijing is by far the most important provider of aid and trade to the cash-strapped regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il.

Chinese government figures put bilateral trade with North Korea at around two billion dollars per year and some estimates say China provides up to 70 percent of its neighbor's fuel and food.

China has traditionally been among the most reluctant UN members to use sanctions as a diplomatic weapon, braking current US efforts to pressure Iran over its nuclear program or Sudan in the stand-off over the violence in its Darfur region.

But the Chinese leadership has largely staked its relationship with the United States on helping achieve a resolution of the North Korean nuclear standoff and has been humiliated by Pyongyang's latest move, US officials said.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice remained confident Tuesday that China will back tough action, noting that Beijing had used unusually harsh rhetoric in calling North Korea's announced nuclear test "brazen" -- a term she said Beijing had used diplomatically "only four or five times in decades."

"Their language is quite unlike anything that China has ever used about North Korea," she said.

"I think they recognize that this was a serious step over an important line from their point of view," Rice said.

Experts say China has to worry that even moderate economic sanctions could be enough to prompt the collapse of Kim Jong-Il's fragile and erratic regime -- sending millions of poor refugees flooding across the border.

"This is the Chinese worry, that you push it to the point of collapse and they get an influx of refugees into China and South Korea," said David Kay, a former UN weapons inspector and non-proliferation expert.

"In a spasm of collapse, the great fear is that the North Koreans might actually use their weapons, not just nuclear but they have a vast range of missiles, armed with chemical weapons, probably biological weapons and certainly high explosives," he said.

"China is never going to put enough pressure on North Korea to cause it to capitulate," added Joseph Cirincione, another non-proliferation expert.

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