Members of the UN Security Council remained divided yesterday over possible new sanctions against the North Korea over its latest nuclear test, China's Xinhua news agency reported.
At an emergency meeting of the Security Council, the US, France and UK as well as Japan were in favour of new sanctions, while countries like Russia advised diplomacy.
US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley called for "strongest possible measures" by the council against the North Korea.
"The time has come to exhaust all diplomatic means to end this crisis, that means quickly enacting the strongest possible measures here in the UN Security Council," Haley told the council meeting that she had requested together with representatives of the UK, France, Japan and South Korea.
"Only the strongest sanctions will enable us to resolve the problem through diplomacy," said Haley. "We have taken an incremental approach, and despite the best intentions, it has not worked."
Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia cautioned that past failure of the council to curb North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes was owing to the fact that the resolutions "were only geared toward leveraging sanctions mechanisms."
'Act in calm and balanced ways'
Nebenzia told the same meeting,"Russia calls on the international community not to yield to emotions, (but) to act in calm and balanced ways," and added that a comprehensive settlement could be achieved only through political and diplomatic channels.
French ambassador to the UN Francois Delattre called for the adoption of new sanctions by the Security Council, plus autonomous sanctions by the European Union.
Delattre said the threat from the North Korea has changed both in dimension and nature. It has changed from regional to global, from virtual to immanent, from serious to existential.
Japanese envoy Koro Bessho said: "Japan stresses the need for the council to adopt swiftly a new resolution with further robust sanction measures."
China's permanent representative to the UN, Liu Jieyi, condemned North Korea for the latest nuclear test and urged the country to return to the track of dialogue. China will not allow chaos and war on the Korean Peninsula, he said.
The envoy said the suspension-for-suspension proposal and dual-track approach put forward by China, together with the Russian proposal of a step-by-step approach, is a realistic and feasible roadmap for the settlement of the issue, and Liu asked the relevant parties for due consideration and positive responses.
The idea of dual approach involves parallel efforts to move forward both de-nuclearisation and the establishment of a peaceful mechanism on the peninsula; the initiative of suspension-for-suspension calls for the North Korea to suspend its nuclear and missile activities and for the US and South Korea to suspend their large-scale war games.
At the end of the emergency meeting Haley said her mission was circulating a draft resolution on the North Korea among council members.
North Korea on Sunday detonated a hydrogen bomb that can be carried by an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), North Korea's Central Television announced.
North Korea's nuclear testing and launches using ballistic missile technology violate UN Security Council resolutions.
Sunday's nuclear test was within a week of UN Security Council condemnation of Pyongyang's ballistic missile launch on Aug 28.
- Bernama
