UN council again delays N Korea resolution vote

UNITED NATIONS, July 11 (Reuters) Backers of a draft U N Security Council resolution condemning North Korean missile tests today said they put off a vote for another day while Chinese officials visited the North Korean capital Pyongyang.

After putting off a vote yesterday, the measure's co-sponsors decided after meeting on Tuesday to ''again defer in asking for a vote on our draft resolution this morning,'' US Ambassador John Bolton told reporters.

The co-sponsors would meet tomorrow morning to again re-evaluate the situation, said Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere of France, the Security Council president for July.

Eight of the council's 15 members have signed on as sponsors of the draft text, which would declare the missile tests a threat to international peace and security and bar trade in and out of North Korea in goods and technology used in making missiles and other weapons of mass destruction.

But China, backed by Russia, both of which have veto power in the council, have dug in their heels in insisting on a similarly worded nonbinding statement instead of a resolution.

Asked about North Korean threats if the council were to impose sanctions against it, Bolton said the international community should not be intimidated.

''We have to try and do what is right to protect international peace and security and not try to psychoanalyze Kim Jong-il,'' the North Korean leader, he said.

Pyongyang has said it would view U N sanctions as tantamount to a declaration of war.

REUTERS PKS BST2023