WASHINGTON — Key world powers agreed Wednesday on a draft of a United Nations resolution that would sharply increase export and financial sanctions against North Korea as punishment for its recent nuclear weapons and missile tests.
After more than two weeks of debate, the United States, Britain and France joined North Korea's traditional protectors, China and Russia, in signing off on the draft. The full 15-member U.N. Security Council is expected to approve the resolution Friday, expressing its "gravest concern" over North Korea's nuclear detonation last month.
Diplomats said adoption of the draft by the five permanent members of the Security Council underscored the determination of world powers to disapprove of North Korea's weapons tests, which they consider a threat to stability in a tense and heavily armed region.
The five nations, however, backed down on the key issue of whether U.N. members should be required to stop and search North Korean ships on the high seas suspected of carrying banned goods. The draft resolution says nations will be urged but not required to search ships in such circumstances.
It also says that if North Korean ships refuse requests to be searched, the countries interdicting them must refuse to provide them port services such as refueling, a provision that analysts believe could hinder North Korea's long-distance shipping.
Especially important was the support of China, which has generally balked at punishing North Korea and resisted U.N. sanctions, but is growing uneasy about rising tensions in the area.
The draft resolution also reflects a tougher attitude on the part of the Obama administration, which came to office vowing greater engagement with North Korea.
Although administration officials continue to say that their top goal is to restart the stalled international disarmament talks with North Korea, many privately say that they have given up hope of voluntary disarmament, and are shifting their focus to simply blocking Pyongyang from trading in nuclear and missile equipment.
Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, predicted that the sanctions, if approved, "will bite, and will bite in a meaningful way."
In preparing the resolution, diplomats weighed the possibility of military retaliation from Pyongyang, which has declared that it would view high seas interdictions as an act of war. Control of North Korea is believed to be in the midst of changing hands as leader Kim Jong Il's health declines, and U.S. officials theorize that key players have been seeking to prove their nationalist credentials to one another.
