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UN to urge N Korea to back down
06/10/2006 09:28 - (SA)
New York - World powers were set to adopt a joint statement on Friday urging North Korea to abandon plans to test a nuclear bomb as the next UN chief said he was ready for a diplomatic mission to Pyongyang.
The expected UN Security Council text, which does not explicitly threaten sanctions, would be weaker than the US and Japan had requested amid disagreement over how to rein in the communist state.
As the man at the centre of the storm - North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il - visited army commanders, frantic diplomacy intensified to dissuade his regime from carrying out its plan.
Russia has held direct talks with Pyongyang, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on a visit to Warsaw, adding: "We are all very worried about this."
Both the US and South Korea have warned they cannot tolerate a nuclear-armed North, Japan has called for sanctions while China, Pyongyang's main ally, has urged it to show restraint.
Annan unable to visit North
North Korean official media reported that during Kim's visit - it did not specify when - he was greeted with cheers and shouts of "Let's fight at the cost of our lives for the respected Supreme Commander Comrade Kim Jong Il!"
The Stalinist state has remained technically at war with the US and South Korea for half a century.
South Korean Defence Minister Yoon Kwang-Ung and his US counterpart Donald Rumsfeld consulted on Friday on the threat, the defence ministry in Seoul said, without going into details.
South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon - almost certain to be confirmed as next UN chief in a vote on Monday - would be willing to visit North Korea to negotiate an end to its nuclear programme, foreign ministry officials in Seoul said.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Ban said outgoing UN chief Kofi Annan had been unable to visit the North for the past decade but that he felt he would be in a better position to do so.
"If necessary, I will take my own initiatives to visit both North and South Korea and I will try to engage (Pyongyang) myself," he added.
In New York, Japan's Kenzo Oshima, who chairs the UN Security Council this month, said experts had made "good progress" in efforts to fine-tune a draft statement.
"Most likely we will have something adopted (Friday)," he added on Thursday.
- AFP
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