China said to hint veto on N.Korea UN resolution

UNITED NATIONS, July 11 (Reuters) China has indirectly threatened to veto a UN Security Council draft resolution imposing sanctions on North Korea if the text were put to a vote in its present form, the British and French ambassadors today said.

Without mentioning China by name, the two ambassadors made clear that Beijing had made its views known on the Japanese-drafted resolution on Pyongang's barrage of missile launchings last week.

For the second straight day the measure's sponsors put off a vote on the resolution, which gives a high-level Chinese delegation time to negotiate with North Korea.

A resolution needs a minimum of nine votes and no veto from the Security Council's five permanent members China, the United States, Russia, Britain and France.

''When a permanent member of the Security Council says a resolution will not pass, things are clear,'' France's UN ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, said when asked about a veto threat.

British UN Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry told reporters it was clear ''that a vote would not have produced an outcome and you can't have an outcome if you don't have agreement on the text.

''We've been assured we would not get an outcome.'' China has opposed the Japanese text but did not use the word ''veto,'' leaving its position open to abstaining and allowing the measure to pass.

However, diplomats said weekend phone calls to all Security Council members by Beijing's Foreign Ministry made it plain China would not allow the resolution to pass. China has only used its veto four times in the past, all related to Taiwan.

China yesterday circulated a tough statement that used similar language to the resolution but would make the sanctions voluntary rather than mandatory.

Jones Parry said the statement still lacked a provision saying that North Korea's missile launches were a threat to international peace and security and did not threaten to follow up with tougher action if Pyongyang did not comply.

He said the resolution could still be put to a vote, or perhaps a stronger council statement and even ''nothing if China produces an outcome'' in its talks in Pyongyang.

RUSSIA RECALLS IRAQ Russia, which supports the statement China produced, did not say whether it would exercise its veto power.

But its UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters that a resolution under Chapter 7, which makes it mandatory, might invite military action as in Iraq.

''We have had cases in the past when some countries were taking references to Chapter 7, which, when they were adopted, were argued to be innocuous... and then it turned out they are not so innocuous at all,'' Churkin said.

''They are regarded as the legal basis for some forceful actions.'' But Emyr Jones Parry disputed the reference to Iraq, saying there were resolutions on cease-fire breaches in the 1990s.

''You'd be hard-pushed, I think to mount an argument that the resolution on the table on North Korea represents actually any authorization for military action,'' he said. ''It doesn't.'' US Ambassador John 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.

Japan's resolution asks member states to take ''those steps necessary'' to prevent North Korea from receiving from missile related funds or exporting and importing materials, goods and technology used in missiles and weapons of mass destruction.

REUTERS SY BST2350