UNITED NATIONS — The UN Security Council unanimously condemned North Korea's December rocket launch and expanded existing UN sanctions, and Pyongyang reacted with a vow to boost the North's military and nuclear capabilities. While the resolution approved by the 15-nation council on Tuesday does not impose new sanctions on Pyongyang, diplomats said Beijing's support for it was a significant diplomatic blow to Pyongyang. The resolution said the council “deplores the violations” by North Korea of its previous resolutions, which banned Pyongyang from conducting further ballistic missile and nuclear tests and from importing materials and technology for those programs. It also said the council “expresses its determination to take significant action in the event of a further DPRK (North Korean) launch or nuclear test”. North Korea reacted quickly, saying it would hold no more talks on the de-nuclearization of the Korean peninsula and would boost its military and nuclear capabilities. “We will take measures to boost and strengthen our defensive military power including nuclear deterrence,” its Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA. The United States' special envoy on North Korea, arriving in Seoul on Wednesday to meet his South Korean counterparts, urged Pyongyang to back down from further provocative actions but left the door open for dialogue. Russia's foreign minister said on Wednesday that North Korea should pay heed to the international community and adhere to limits on its missile and nuclear programs. South Korea says the North is technically ready for a third nuclear test, and satellite images show it is actively working on its nuclear site. However, political analysts said they viewed a test as unlikely in the near-term. “North Korea will likely take a sequenced strategy where the first stage response would be more militarily aggressive actions like another missile launch,” said Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. There are concerns that North Korea could stage a test using highly enriched uranium for the first time, which would give it a second path to a nuclear bomb and enable it to preserve its stocks of plutonium, which are believed to be sufficient for about 12 nuclear devices. Several diplomats said Beijing's decision to back the resolution sent a strong message to Pyongyang. “It might not be much, but the Chinese move is significant,” a council diplomat told Reuters. “The prospect of a (new) nuclear test might have been a game changer (for China).” The United States had wanted to punish North Korea for the rocket launch with a Security Council resolution that imposed entirely new sanctions against Pyongyang, but Beijing rejected that option. China agreed to UN sanctions against Pyongyang after North Korea's 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests. — Reuters
