THE United Nations security council agreed yesterday to impose tough financial and arms sanctions in response to last week’s nuclear weapons test by North Korea.
The penalties fell short of America’s demands after running into opposition from the Chinese and Russians but still drew a furious response from the North Koreans.
“If the United States increases pressure on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the DPRK will continue to take physical countermeasures, considering it as a declaration of war,” warned Pak Gil Yon, their ambassador.
The UN resolution adopted unanimously by the 15 members of the security council calls on North Korea to eliminate its nuclear weapons but explicitly rules out military action if it does not comply. All countries will be required to prevent the sale or transfer of materials relating to the reclusive regime’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
The sale of military hardware such as tanks, ships, aircraft and helicopters will henceforth be banned. Travel will be forbidden for North Koreans working on weapons and missiles programmes. There will also be a freeze on the overseas assets of people and businesses connected with its nuclear programme.
One of the most contested provisions permits nations to stop and search cargo vessels sailing to and from North Korea for illegal weapons trafficking. Wang Guangya, the Chinese ambassador to the UN, urged other countries yesterday not to take “provocative steps” — a reference to the interception of ships near China’s coast.
In a dig at the gourmet tastes of Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader, the export of luxury goods will be prohibited. The “Dear Leader” regularly dines on lobster, caviar, sushi, pizza and shark’s fin soup and reportedly imports £350,000 of Hennessy VSO cognac a year for his personal collection.
President George W Bush, who had insisted that the North Korean regime suffer “real consequences”, was satisfied with the deal brokered at the UN. “The message today says to the leader of North Korea that the world is united in our opposition to his nuclear weapons plans,” he said.
Sir Emyr Jones Parry, the British ambassador to the UN, said the unanimous vote sent a “strong signal” to Pyongyang.
The North Koreans had vowed to carry out a second nuclear test if sanctions are imposed. US officials said last week’s blast released radioactive debris into the air that was consistent with a nuclear explosion but the evidence was not conclusive.
Diplomats in Beijing nevertheless said yesterday that China and all the US allies believed North Korea’s claim that it had detonated an experimental nuclear device.
The Chinese government has been ultra-cautious in its official reaction to the tests. However, it is openly debating “regime change” in Pyongyang and foreign ministry officials have started to make a point of distinguishing between the North Korean people and their government in conversations with diplomats.
Some in Beijing argued against heavy sanctions on North Korea for fear that these would destroy what remains of a pro-Chinese “reformist” faction inside the country. “In today’s DPRK government there are two factions, Sinophile and royalist,” one Chinese analyst wrote online.
“The objective of the Sinophiles is reform, Chinese- style, and then to bring down Kim Jong-il’s royal family. That’s why Kim is against reform. He’s not stupid.”
More than one Chinese academic agreed that China yearned for an uprising in North Korea similar to the one that swept away Nicolae Ceausescu, the Romanian dictator, in 1989 and replaced him with communist reformers and generals.
The Chinese are known to have made an intense political study of the Romanian revolution and even questioned President Ion Iliescu, who took over, about how it was done.
Kim, for his part, ordered North Korean leaders to watch videos of the swift and chaotic trial and execution of Ceausescu and his wife Elena, the vice-prime minister, as a salutary exercise.
The balance of risk between reform and chaos has dominated arguments within China’s ruling elite. The Chinese have permitted an astonishing range of vituperative internet comment about an ally with whom Beijing maintains a treaty of friendship and co-operation.
One academic, Wu Jianguo, published an article in a Singapore-based Chinese newspaper — available online in China — bluntly saying: “I suggest China should make an end of Kim’s government.”
Hinting at the options, Chinese online military commentators have exposed plots and purges inside North Korea that were previously unknown or unconfirmed.
They have described three attempted coups that ended in bloodshed. In 1996 the Sixth Field Army was planning to revolt but the scheme was betrayed by a new commander. One or two plotters got away but Kim’s personal guards arrested senior officers and the Sixth Field Army’s political commissars.
On March 12, 1998, Kim suddenly announced a martial law “exercise” in Pyongyang and information reaching Beijing spoke of gunfire in the streets of the city.
The Chinese later learnt that two ministries were involved in a coup attempt and more than 20 ministerial officials were killed after it was crushed.
A third attempt took place in October 1999 when a company of the Third Field Army rebelled in dissatisfaction over grain distribution during the prolonged famine, which may have killed 1m people.
