"The nuclear test will undoubtedly exert a negative impact on our relations," the spokesman, Liu Jianchao, said at a routine media briefing. He said Monday's test was done "flagrantly, and in disregard of the international community's shared opposition." But Liu urged diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis and said that the time was not right for punishment, much less military action.
China has been North Korea's major ally and a source of both food and fuel for the desperately poor nation of 23 million. Behind Beijing's largesse is a fear that a collapsing North Korea could bring U.S.
troops stationed in South Korea to China's doorstep, or send refugees pouring across the border, destabilizing the Chinese industrial northeast. "Taking military action against North Korea would be unimaginable," Liu said. "What we should discuss now is not the negative issue of punishment.
" "Instead, the international community and the United Nations should take positive and appropriate measures that will help the process of de-nuclearization on the Korean peninsula," he said. The South Koreans were lining up with the Chinese in opposing any U.N.
resolution that includes a military threat. "There should never be war on the Korean Peninsula," South Korean Prime Minister Han Myung-sook told parliament. Japan's leader said his nation still had no intention of seeking atomic weapons, easing fears of a new regional nuclear arms race.
"There will be no change in our non-nuclear arms principles," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told lawmakers. Japan could slap sanctions on North Korea without waiting for confirmation of its alleged nuclear weapons test, he said. Earlier today, Japan's lower house of Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution protesting Pyongyang's move.
"As the only country to have ever suffered a nuclear attack ...
Japan strongly condemns North Korea's actions and demands that it abandon its nuclear weapons program," the resolution read. Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki were leveled by American atomic bombs in 1945. U.
S. Ambassador to the U.N.
John Bolton said ahead of a Security Council meeting Tuesday that the standoff was one "between North Korea and the rest of the world," which will result in sanctions or more serious punishment. He refused to rule out military action, including a naval blockade, but emphasized that President Bush wants to resolve the matter using peaceful means. "I think that North Korea has had a successful history of intimidating other countries," Bolton said on CBS' "The Early Show.
" "They're not going to be successful with us." China has long opposed sanctions sought by countries such as the United States, which is pressing for potentially crippling new measures against Pyongyang. If the Security Council endorses sanctions, China would have little choice but to impose them, said Zhang Liangui, North Korea watcher at the Central Party school, a Communist Party training academy in Beijing.
"China needs to keep in lockstep with the international community," Zhang said.
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