China, S Korea to try to sway defiant nuclear North

BEIJING, Oct 13 (Reuters) Leaders of China and South Korea, the only countries with any potential sway over North Korea, meet tomorrow to find a response to Pyongyang's nuclear defiance.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and Chinese President Hu Jintao have seen their policies of engagement with the North shaken by Pyongyang's boast on Monday that it had conducted a nuclear test, and both are now reassessing their approach.

Roh's talks with Hu during a one-day visit to Beijing take place as the UN Security Council considers a US-drafted package of proposed sanctions to punish Pyongyang for its reported test.

North Korea's escalation of tension, and Beijing and Seoul's inability so far to stop it, highlights the growing frustration in Pyongyang's two neighbours, despite their economic and political influence on the isolated communist state.

''It has become more difficult than ever for China and South Korea to influence the North so that it doesn't worsen the situation,'' said one Seoul government official.

The two countries were likely to approve some form of UN action, although both dread an unstable North Korea on their borders, Ahn Yinhay, an expert on Chinese-Korean relations at Korea University, said.

The two leaders were likely to discuss how to tell the North, they hope convincingly and without provoking it, that it was a mistake to have announced it had conducted a nuclear test, South Korean media quoted another government official as saying.

South Korea was seeking ''result-oriented sanctions'', Seoul's Yonhap news agency quoted the official as saying.

''I think we need to talk about sanctions that will bring about the result that South Korea and China want, not some emotional response on the spur of the moment.'' North Korea has said it would consider tough UN measures as tantamount to a declaration of war and would respond in kind.

A new US draft for a Security Council resolution, invoking Chapter 7 of the UN Charter which could ultimately lead to military action, determines that North Korea's actions are a threat to international peace and security.

China wants to restrict the Chapter 7 reference to Article 41, which would authorise only a narrow list of sanctions to ensure no military action could be inferred.

REUTERS DH PM0148