U.S. UN Ambassador Susan Rice said on Tuesday that the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (P5) had "very good, productive, initial talks" on the draft resolution on the Monday nuclear test conducted by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
 |
|
U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice speaks to the press at the UN headquarters in New York, May 25, 2009. [Shen Hong/Xinhua] |
Rice made the statement to reporters here just at the end of the closed-door consultations by ambassadors from the P5 -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- to discuss the draft resolution on the DPRK's second nuclear test since October 2006.
Ambassadors from Japan and South Korea also took part in the meeting, which began at around 4:30 p.m. EDT behind closed doors.
"We have very good, productive, initial talks," she said. "We have a good session and a good start."
"These were very serious concrete talks and these are only first steps," she said, adding that the discussion and deliberations will "take some time," and require "careful consideration."
"We are in agreement on the goals of resolutions," Rice said. "We share a common set of objectives that convey clearly and unequivocally that the actions by the DPRK run counter to the regional peace and security, violate international law and need to be dealt with directly and seriously."
Also emerging from the closed-door consultations, Japanese UN Ambassador Yukio Takasu told reporters that "there is a strong understanding" that the 15-nation Council will send "a strong message" to the DPRK, who announced the successful conducting on Monday of the large underground explosion.
"We found the discussion useful," he said. "It's very clear that (we will have) a clear and strong message from the Security Council resolution."
"Nobody is saying that what we have done so far, that has been agreed upon, is good enough," he added. "We need additional" measures.
Japan is one of the countries proposing additional sanction measures to be taken by the Security Council against the DPRK.
The Security Council on Monday voiced "the strong opposition to and the condemnation of" the DPRK's second nuclear test since October 2006 at the end of their emergency meeting, held shortly after the DPRK's large underground explosion.
The rotating Council president of May, Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, told reporters here on Monday that the Council members would immediately begin to work on a new legally binding resolution on the nuclear test.
The DPRK has been under UN sanctions that prevent the nation from nuclear and ballistic activity since its first atomic test in2006. An April 5 rocket launch, which the DPRK said launched a rocket to put a satellite into orbit, prompted the Security Council to adopt a presidential statement to condemn the launch and tightened the sanctions.
(Xinhua News Agency May 27, 2009)
