China will go for modified UN resolution on N Korea

UNITED NATIONS, July 10 (Reuters) China today opened the door to supporting a UN Security Council resolution on North Korea's barrage of missiles but said it would have to be modified.

China's UN Ambassador Wang Guangya spoke to reporters as diplomats gathered in various groups to see if and when there would be a vote on a Japanese-drafted resolution imposing sanctions on North Korea's missile program.

China, which opposes sanctions, had opted for a presidential statement, which is weaker than a resolution. But Wang now said China would accept a resolution in what he called a still divided 15-nation Security Council. He did not spell out the changes.

''We asked them to modify their position,'' Wang said. ''If they wish to have a resolution, they should have a modified one, not this one.'' In Tokyo, Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said he would not push for a vote on Monday as previously planned, particularly because of the current visit to Pyongyang by a high-level Chinese delegation. The Security Council has not said when it would vote.

As for changing the resolution to meet Chinese demands, Japan's U.N. Ambassador Kenzo Oshima said the sanctions would not be dropped.

Beijing's Foreign Ministry over the weekend telephoned all Security Council members in what one council member described as ''heavy lobbying.'' ''They said they don't want this resolution and they meant it and said it could worsen the situation in the region rather than improve it,'' said the diplomat, who would not be named because of the secrecy of the negotiations.

North Korea launched at least six missiles early last Wednesday and fired off a seventh some 12 hours later. The missiles included a long-range Taepodong-2, which some experts had said could hit Alaska. U.S. officials said it flew for less than a minute and fell into the sea west of Japan.

Wang met with Japan and the other four permanent council members with veto power the United States, Britain, France, Russia at the U.S. mission to the United Nations.

The full council is scheduled to consult in the afternoon following another round of talks with Japan and the sponsors of the resolution -- the United States, Britain, France, Denmark, Greece, Peru and Slovakia.

The draft resolution asks member states to take ''those steps necessary'' to prevent North Korea from receiving and transferring financial resources, materials, goods and technology used in missiles and weapons of mass destruction.

But the sanctions have less enforcement power behind them than sanctions imposed in the past as there is no Security Council monitoring committee created.

The resolution leaves it to individual government to take measure preventing the delivery or receipt of goods and finances for North Korea's dangerous weapons.

Reuters SY DB2231