Seoul working with Tokyo, Washington on ‘strong’ action against Pyongyang

SEOUL — Alarmed by North Korea’s weekend rocket launch, the leaders of South Korea, Japan and the United States yesterday held separate telephone discussions and agreed to work towards “strong and effective” United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang.

North Korea says it put a satellite into orbit on Sunday, but the US and its allies see the launch as a cover for Pyongyang’s development of ballistic missile technology that is banned under UN resolutions and could be used to deliver a nuclear weapon across the Pacific Ocean.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye spoke with US President Barack Obama on the phone yesterday and agreed that various sanctions outside the UN were also needed to punish North Korea, said Ms Park’s office in a statement.

“The two leaders agreed for the two countries to cooperate closely for the adoption of strong and effective sanction resolutions as a united response by the international community against the North’s nuclear test and a rocket launch using ballistic missile technology,” said the presidential Blue House.

The UN Security Council (UNSC) on Sunday strongly condemned North Korea’s rocket launch and promised to take action, while Washington vowed to ensure the 15-nation body imposed “serious consequences” on Pyongyang as soon as possible.

However, China — North Korea’s key ally and a veto-wielding member of the UNSC — has resisted harsh sanctions sought by the US and South Korea following the North’s Jan 6 test of a nuclear device Pyongyang claimed is a hydrogen bomb.

A senior US official said earlier this week that China agrees any new UN resolution on North Korea will include additional sanctions and go beyond previous steps, but Washington is urging Beijing to put even more pressure on Pyongyang.

China is in a “unique position” as North Korea’s neighbour and ally to compel it to abandon its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes, said the official.

“It’s clear to me that our Chinese friends have indicated that the UNSC’s response will include sanctions and does need to go beyond previous resolutions,” he said. “The key, of course, is what exactly are the specific actions we are going to take together, and that’s the focus of our efforts right now.

“We have made clear that China can do more and needs to do more.”

Proposed sanctions have not been made public, but one diplomat said that Washington was hoping to tighten international restrictions on North Korea’s banking system.

Beijing was reluctant to support that step for fear of worsening conditions in its impoverished neighbour, said the diplomat.

The US and South Korea announced after last month’s missile test that they had begun formal discussions about the possibility of deploying an advanced missile defence system called Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD).

Beijing has objected to this, arguing it could undermine its strategic deterrent.

In his talks with Ms Park yesterday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan backs the deployment of the THAAD system in South Korea, according to Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda.

Mr Abe spoke with Mr Obama for over half an hour, during which time Mr Abe said North Korea’s launch of a long-range ballistic missile “poses a direct and serious threat to Japan and the United States”, and the international community “must make every effort to put the brakes on Pyongyang’s dangerous provocative acts”.

“We would like to accelerate the process toward swift adoption of a strong (UN) resolution,” Mr Abe reportedly said. “It is necessary to promote specific cooperation in the Japan-US alliance and trilaterally with the United States and South Korea.”

In a related move, Japan’s Parliament yesterday condemned the launch, calling it a serious provocation against peace and demanding North Korea stop such activity. AGENCIES