SEOUL, (Reuters):
NORTH KOREA threatened Japan yesterday for imposing sanctions after it test-fired missiles this week, while the United States struggled to get a unified diplomatic response to the launchings.
In one sign of how difficult it has been to get everybody on the same page, South Korea said it would hold ministerial talks with the North as scheduled next week, the first high-level contact with Pyongyang since the tests.
Asked at a news conference in Chicago yesterday if a military option was on the table regarding North Korea, U.S. President George W. Bush side-stepped the question saying: "We want to solve all problems diplomatically."
"I don't know what the man's intentions are," Bush said referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. "Is he trying to force us to do something by defying the world?"
'SLOW AND CUMBERSOME'
He acknowledged that diplomatic efforts have been "slow and cumbersome."
"Some nations are more comfortable with sanctions than others," he said, adding some countries have economic interests with North Korea.
The U.N. Security Council was divided over applying sanctions to North Korea's missile programmes, but Japan was pressing for a vote today on its resolution.
A new version of Japan's draft resolution, obtained by Reuters, rewords bans on the transfer of financial resources and materials that would help North Korea's missile programmes.
But it does not drop the sanctions.
"China has one position. Of course, we respect that but unfortunately, I don't think there is any sort of a closing as far as this meeting is concerned," Japan's U.N. ambassador, Kenzo Oshima, told reporters.
North Korea considers sanctions against it as a declaration of war, its deputy ambassador to the United Nations was quoted as saying by South Korea's Yonhap news agency late on Friday.
Defying near-universal condemnation of its latest firings, North Korea has vowed to carry out more launches and has said it will use force if the international community tries to stop it.
