LIANE HANSEN, host:
From NPR News, this is WEEKEND EDITION. I'm Liane Hansen. The United Nations Security Council this weekend adopted a resolution imposing sanctions on North Korea for reportedly conducting a nuclear test this past week. The resolution was unanimously passed by the 15-member Security Council following a week of intense negotiations. In Washington, President Bush welcomed the resolution.
President GEORGE W. BUSH: This action by the United Nations, which was swift and tough, says that we are united in our determination to see to it that the Korean Peninsula is nuclear weapons-free.
HANSEN: To get the resolution, the Bush administration gave into pressure from China and Russia on two key points, specifically ruling out the threat of using military force against North Korea and weakening a provision permitting inspections of shipments to and from North Korea. Pyongyang's ambassador to the United Nations, Pak Gil Yon, denounced the Security Council action and warned against any strict enforcement of its measures.
Ambassador PAK GIL YON (North Korean Ambassador to the U.N.): If the United States increases pressure upon the Democrat People's Republic of Korea persistently, the DPRK will continue to take physical countermeasures, considering it as a declaration of war.
HANSEN: NPR's Michael Sullivan has been watching developments in this story from Seoul, the capital of South Korea, and he joins us. Michael, we just heard that quote from the North Korean ambassador to the U.N. What additional reaction has been coming out of Pyongyang this weekend?
MICHAEL SULLIVAN: There hasn't been any, Liane. I mean, the only official comment came from the ambassador, that we just heard, and him repeating the warning that was made earlier in the week. What's not clear to me if he means more pressure after the resolution or if he was referring specifically to the resolution, and of course he didn't say what the North's response or what those countermeasures that he spoke about might be. It could be just more rhetoric or not. I mean, remember, the North did warn they were going to test about a week before they actually went ahead and did it.
HANSEN: What about the reaction to the resolution by the South Korean government?
SULLIVAN: We've heard a little bit more but not a lot more. It's been very restrained, to say the least. The foreign ministry today released a simple statement this morning that - it said it would faithfully implement the resolution, but aside from that not much.
The government here is in a real bind. They're clearly unhappy with test, and they recognize the need to do something, but they don't want to rock the boat too much. I mean, you remember they've got a heavily armed and high-strung neighbor just about 30 miles north of the capital. So even though South Korea's president said immediately after the test it would have to reconsider the so-called sunshine policy of economic engagement, that hasn't really happened. The South's two main economic projects with the North haven't really been affected. The Kaesong Industrial Park just over the border, run by the South but staffed by labor from the North, that's still up and running. So is the other project, a mountain resort for Southern tourists. So neither look to be affected by the U.N. resolution.
Japan is taking a much tougher line, I think. It's saying today after the resolution it may impose more unilateral sanctions against the North, and that's after Japan declared earlier this week that they'd ban North Korean ships from their ports and North Korean imports, mainly food items. And those also bring the North badly needed cash.
HANSEN: What about on the street in South Korea? Any reaction among the citizens to the reports of, first of all, the North Korean nuclear tests and to the U.N. resolution imposing sanctions?
SULLIVAN: Yeah. I think by today they weren't paying a lot of attention to the resolution. But I think it's a mixed bag regarding the test. I mean, I think older people here tend to view the test a little more harshly. They see it maybe through more of a Cold War prism. And maybe they see it more as a betrayal after the sunshine policy of engagement in the past eight years or so.
But you hear another point of view expressed fairly frequently here, as well, and that's the threat from the North isn't really aimed at the South, it's aimed at the U.S., which in fact is exactly what the North has been saying all along and has used as a justification for carrying out the tests.
So in that context people here aren't that worried. They don't think the North wants to get into it with the South; they think this is just the North's way of getting the U.S. to deal with the North directly.
HANSEN: NPR's Michael Sullivan in Seoul, South Korea. Michael, thank you very much.
SULLIVAN: You're welcome, Liane. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
