By KUNA,
Tokyo : The US and South Korea are seeking a UN Security Council presidential statement denouncing North Korea’s uranium enrichment program, a senior Washington envoy said Wednesday.
Robert Einhorn, the US State Department’s special adviser for nonproliferation and arms control, made the remark in Seoul after talks with South Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator, Wi Sung-lac, Yonhap News Agency reported.
“We’re working hard to get a Security Council presidential statement that makes clear that North Korea’s uranium enrichment program is a violation both of UN Security Council resolutions and a 2005 disarmament-for-aid deal,” Einhorn was quoted as telling reporters.
The attempt at a Security Council statement appears to be the next step that Seoul and Washington have agreed to take to deal with the uranium program after China blocked the council last week from adopting an experts’ report critical of the uranium program, the report said. Beijing is concerned that such a move could aggravate tensions and insists that the issue should be discussed at six-party talks involving the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the US.
Prospects for a presidential statement still appear to be in doubt because China could oppose the move again. Beijing, the North’s last-remaining major ally, holds veto powers as one of the five permanent members of the council.
North Korea revealed in November that it was running a uranium enrichment facility, adding to international concerns about its nuclear capabilities.
Uranium, if highly enriched, can be used to make weapons, providing Pyongyang with a second way of building atomic bombs after its existing plutonium-based program. Pyongyang has said the purpose of the facility is to produce fuel for a power-generating nuclear reactor and that the country has the right to peaceful use of nuclear energy. But few believe the claim by a regime that has pursued nuclear ambitions for decades and conducted nuclear tests twice.
South Korea and the US have called for a tough response to the uranium program, including taking the matter to the Security Council in an effort to clearly define the illicit nature of the program before reopening the six-party talks.