Russia and China pressure N. Korea over missiles

By Oliver Bullough

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia and China urged North Korea on
Thursday to head off a looming diplomatic crisis in its nuclear
negotiations with the rest of the world after reports that
Pyongyang is preparing to test a ballistic missile.

Moscow summoned North Korea’s ambassador to explain the
U.S. reports which say Pyongyang has prepared a missile for
launch, while China urged North Korea and Washington to find a
breakthrough in talks over North Korea’s missile program.

The public comments by the veto-wielding U.N. Security
Council members, who usually try to soften Western criticism of
Pyongyang, underlined the growing tension over North Korea that
has hit financial markets, prompted Japan to muster naval ships
and the United States to activate a missile defense system.

“It was stressed that any steps that could negatively
impact regional stability and complicate the quest for a way to
settle the nuclear problem on the Korean peninsula were
undesirable,” Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

China appealed for calm on Thursday and said North Korea’s
claim to have a sovereign right to test its missiles, and U.S.
criticism that a test would violate existing agreements, were
making the problem difficult to resolve.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei said Beijing hoped
the parties would resolve the problem through negotiations.

North Korea said on Wednesday it wanted new direct talks
with the United States. Washington rejected the proposal and
demanded Pyongyang return to stalled multilateral talks aimed
at persuading the North to abandon its nuclear arms program in
return for aid and security promises.

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said on
Thursday Washington was committed to a diplomatic solution and
ready for negotiations.

“We’re having consultations here in New York with other
members of the Security Council and other members of the U.N.,”
Bolton said. “But … the most important priority, is to try
and persuade North Korea not to launch at all.”

BRINKMANSHIP

The United States has been saying for about a week there is
evidence North Korea may test-fire its Taepodong-2 missile and
on Thursday Japan’s defense minister said Tokyo had mobilized
naval vessels and aircraft to gather information.

But in an interview with CNN, Vice President Dick Cheney
seemed to downplay the threat from North Korea’s missile
program, saying Pyongyang’s missile capabilities were “fairly
rudimentary.”

Cheney, according to a transcript of the CNN interview,
said North Korea seems to have improved the range of its
missiles but suggested the program still lacked sophistication.

Anxiety over the standoff spooked financial markets,
pushing the yen down against the dollar on a rumor — later
denied — that a U.S. military plane had crashed in the North.

Spokesmen for U.S. forces in Japan and South Korea as well
as for the South Korean and Japanese military said they had not
heard of any plane crash.

The rumor emerged after Pyongyang’s KCNA news agency warned
that chances of an aerial conflict with the United States had
grown because of U.S. spy flights over the secretive state.

“The U.S. imperialist warmongers have been intensifying
military provocations against the DPRK (North Korea) of late,”
KCNA said in a report. “The ceaseless illegal intrusion of the
planes has created a grave danger of military conflict in the
air above the region.”

Pentagon officials have declined to say if they would try
to shoot down any North Korean missile, but other U.S.
officials have said that is unlikely as the launch is probably
aimed at the open sea.

Six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, joining
the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia,
have been stalled since November after Washington cracked down
on firms suspected of helping Pyongyang’s illicit activities
such as counterfeiting.

Pyongyang is feeling the crackdown’s pinch, and is also
piqued that U.S. and world attention has shifted to concern
about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, analysts and diplomats said.

(Additional reporting by Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing bureaux)