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(LEAD) S. Korea wants U.N. to issue symbolic message, rather than imposing further sanctions: official
By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, June 1 (Yonhap) -- South Korea wants the U.N. Security Council to send a symbolic message to North Korea for the sinking of a South Korean warship rather than seeking additional sanctions, a senior South Korean official said Tuesday.
"You don't have to think that any Security Council action is for imposing new sanctions," South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Chun Yung-woo said. "We expect the Security Council to send a political, symbolic and moral message that such acts as the Cheonan incident cannot be tolerated and that North Korea should be held accountable and should not repeat this kind of military provocation."
Emerging from a meeting with Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg, Chun told reporters, "We've just discussed what kind of message the Security Council should deliver, and we have not yet talked about any additional sanctions."
Chun noted that North Korea is already subject to U.N. sanctions imposed after its nuclear and missile tests.
"We may impose those sanctions strictly or slap further sanctions," he said. "However, we have every means to impose sanctions unilaterally or multilaterally in cooperation with our allies, without additional Security Council action."
North Korea has vehemently denied involvement and threatened to stage all-out war if sanctioned for the sinking, which claimed 46 lives on the Yellow Sea border with North Korea in March.
Chun's remarks come amid signs of the two Koreas seeking room to maneuver with tensions high after an international team concluded late last month a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine destroyed the 1,200-ton Cheonan.
South Korea severed all ties with North Korea and pledged to take the case to the Security Council and resume propaganda broadcasts along its border with North Korea after a six-year suspension.
Seoul, however, last week said it will delay reopening the propaganda broadcasts, whose facilities Pyongyang threatened to fire upon, while the North hinted it will maintain the joint industrial complex in the North's border town of Kaesong despite the heightened tensions.
Chun said his government has not yet decided whether to seek a Security Council resolution or a chairman's statement and when to bring it to the council, adding, "We will make a final decision after I visit the U.N. tomorrow to check the situation there after meeting U.S. ambassador Susan Rice and other officials from related countries."
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, meanwhile, reiterated Washington's support for Seoul's bid to condemn North Korea at the Security Council.
"Obviously, South Korea and others have taken the concern about the investigation that was conducted to the United Nations for further actions," Gibbs told a daily news briefing. "We're obviously in close communication with the South Koreans and are supportive of their efforts to respond."
Chun said he was not sure if China will support any Security Council action against North Korea.
"We need to consult closely members of the Security Council until any action is taken by the council," he said. "We also need to consult the U.S. and other countries on how to strictly impose U.N. sanctions and cooperate in imposing unilateral and multilateral sanctions outside of the Security Council resolutions."
As one of five veto-wielding powers on the Security Council, China is the key to the adoption of a resolution or chairman's statement, but has long been reluctant to side with the U.S. and its allies in rebuking North Korea, which is heavily dependent on its communist ally for food, energy and other necessities.
At a joint press conference with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama in the southern South Korean resort island of Jeju Sunday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao neither blamed North Korea for the Cheonan incident nor hinted at support for Lee's plans for Security Council actions.
Wen merely emphasized the need to "avoid conflict" and "maintain peace and stability," although Lee sought "wise cooperation" from China and other countries on the issue.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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