World steps up pressure on North Korea

Japan and Australia today became the first countries to take firm steps to punish North Korea for its missile tests this week, while Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Taiwan added their voices to the chorus of condemnation worldwide.

The seven missiles Pyongyang fired on Wednesday apparently fell harmlessly into the Sea of Japan, and US officials said the long-range one – a Taepodong-2 believed capable of reaching Alaska, if not America’s West Coast – failed shortly after take-off.

The test launches came at an especially sensitive time; the nuclear-armed North has reached a stalemate with regional powers over negotiations to persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear programme in exchange for badly-needed aid.

Japan – which has been pushing for the UN Security Council to impose sanctions on Pyongyang – today announced it would not provide North Korea with food aid.

Shoichi Nakagawa, Japan’s minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, also said that Tokyo was considering restricting agricultural and fisheries trade between the two sides.

“I feel sorry for the people who are starving, but e have absolutely no plans to provide food aid to North Korea,” Nakagawa said.

The decision follows steps Tokyo has already taken against the North that stop short of full-scale economic sanctions, including the barring of a North Korean trade ferry that regularly visits Japan.

A North Korean envoy today described Tokyo’s steps as “outrageous” and demanded that the sanctions be lifted, according to a news report. The Japanese government rejected the criticism.

Aid may be one of the few avenues of persuasion that can be used on the North, given that only a handful of countries maintain diplomatic ties of any sort with it. Australia, one of the handful, said it planned to significantly curtail those ties, according to local media reports.

Michael L’Estrange, the head of Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said departmental dealings with North Korean officials would be cancelled.

The step follows Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer’s announcement earlier this week that Australia planned to tighten restrictions on North Korean officials travelling to Australia, and would cancel a planned visit by officials to Pyongyang.

Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian added his voice to those raised in protest against the missile tests.

In a speech to newly commissioned Taiwanese military officers, Chen said the test “was a severe provocation to the US and Japan and also posed a serious threat to regional peace”.

Criticism was also forthcoming from Russia’s Putin, whose country along with China remains one of Pyongyang’s few friends in the world.

Putin said Russia was “disappointed” and concerned, but stressed the need for diplomacy and a return to six-nation talks to defuse tension over Pyongyang’s nuclear program.

The tests “should not lead to such emotions that would drown out common sense,” Putin said. “We have to review the issue in all its entirety. We should be aiming to resuming the negotiation process with North Korea. ... We have to create an atmosphere that will lead to compromise.”

Amid all the worldwide condemnation, however, Venezuela’s leadership stood virtually alone in voicing support for the missile launches, saying the communist country had every right to conduct such tests.

“They are exercising the right that every country has to conduct tests,” Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said. “We do not have any critical position. There was no declaration of war.”