U.S. Seeks Common Ground with China on N.Korea Shipping

tsfrank

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is working to reach a common ground with China on the interdiction of weapons going in and out of North Korea and hopes to avoid interdictions at sea, top U.S. diplomats said on Sunday.

While the U.N. Security Council has authorized searches at sea to prevent North Korea from advancing and exporting its weapons programs, Washington hopes this can be done with inspections at ports and on land, said the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

``The overwhelming predominance of the inspections would take place in ports and at land crossings,'' U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton told CNN's ``Late Edition.''

The resolution that passed unanimously by the U.N. Security Council on Saturday in response to Pyongyang's saying it successfully tested a nuclear device allows nations to stop cargo going to and from North Korea to check for weapons of mass destruction or related supplies.

It does not, however, call for a sea blockade of North Korea, and interdiction of banned items can be accomplished without one, Bolton said.

``We had not proposed that (a blockade),'' he said.

China has in the past refused interdiction of suspicious North Korean vessels on the lines of the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative PSI. This coalition of nations, launched in 2003, encourages the interdiction of dangerous weapons from North Korea, Iran and other states of concern.

``The PSI, politically, China will not do it,'' Wang Guangya, Beijing's UN ambassador, told reporters on Saturday.

``I believe the exercises under the PSI will easily lead, whether it is intentional or not ... to different escalations of provocations,'' said Wang.

Said Bolton on Sunday: ``I'm sure China is going to abide by the very resolution it voted for. How it accomplishes that I'm sure we'll have discussions on. ... I'm sure there are a lot of ways to do that.''

FREEZE FUNDS

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told CBS' ``Face the Nation'' program there will be serious discussions on how to best use ``the interdiction provisions.''

``I don't think I want to speculate on how (interdiction authority) is going to be used. ... It's a powerful tool but one that needs to be fully understood.''

``I think you're going to find China carrying out its responsibilities ... undoubtedly in a way that it thinks will not create conflict,'' Rice said.

The U.N. resolution also bans luxury goods enjoyed by the Pyongyang elite and asks nations to freeze funds connected with the nation's unconventional arms programs. ``This is a regime that very much likes luxury for itself while it starves its own people,'' Rice said on ``Fox News Sunday.''

Chinese compliance with the resolution will be essential, said Sen. John Warner.

``A chain is no stronger than its weakest link,'' Warner, a Virginia Republican and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told ``Face the Nation.''

``If that border is left open then all the rest of the containment and security measures could easily fail.''

Sam Nunn, a former Georgia senator and head of the Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative, told the CBS program Washington needs to assure its allies in the region it is not seeking regime change in North Korea.

Both China and South Korea fear a massive inundation of refugees, some armed and all of them hungry, if North Korea's repressive and impoverished regime were to implode.