WASHINGTON – U.N. Ambassador John Bolton said yesterday the United States will not be intimidated by North Korea’s threats as world powers worked to reach a deal on tough sanctions against the rogue communist nation.
Bolton called Kim Jong Il’s nuclear test earlier this week “the way North Korea typically negotiates, by threat and intimidation.”
“It’s worked for them before. It won’t work now,” added Bolton.
“We keep the military option on the table because North Korea needs to know that, but President Bush has been very clear he wants this resolved peacefully and diplomatically,” Bolton said.
The ambassador spoke prior to a closed-door meeting with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States – to discuss the U.S.-proposed resolution that would ban imports of military supplies and luxury items from the rogue communist nation.
No vote has been scheduled yet.
“Look, we don’t have complete agreement on this yet, that’s hardly a news flash, but we’re making progress,” Bolton said afterward.
Japan proposed even more stringent measures in amendments to the U.S. draft, including banning all North Korean ships and planes from ports. But diplomats doubted they would be approved.
France’s U.N. ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, said what was most important was that the resolution focus on North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs “and everything that finances it.”
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rejected a suggestion that Pyongyang may feel it needs nuclear weapons to stave off an Iraq-style U.S. invasion.
Bush, she told CNN, has told “the North Koreans that there is no intention to invade or attack them. So they have that guarantee . . . I don’t know what more they want.”
Pyongyang again demanded one-on-one talks with Washington and threatened to launch a nuclear-tipped missile if the United States doesn’t help resolve the standoff.