Sanctions Against North

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - A top Russian diplomat said yesterday that a nuclear North Korea would be against Russia's national interests and that the Kremlin would re-evaluate its opposition to international sanctions should the North Koreans develop nuclear weapons. The statements by Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov, who was the Kremlin's emissary to North Korea during a diplomatic mission in January, amounted to a warning to North Korea that patience was ebbing in one of the few nations that has offered it sympathy during a five-month nuclear crisis with the United States.

WASHINGTON -- The U.N. Security Council moved quickly yesterday toward imposing new economic sanctions against North Korea amid a firestorm of international protest ignited by Pyongyang's claim that it had detonated a nuclear bomb in an underground test. The Security Council voted unanimously to condemn North Korea's action. Diplomats were weighing a draft proposal submitted by the United States that would bar the sale of military or luxury goods to North Korea and require the inspection of all cargo shipped into and out of the country, among other steps.

PORTSMOUTH, England -- President Clinton, under fire from critics who have accused him of being too soft in opposing North Korea's purported nuclear ambitions, significantly stepped up his rhetoric yesterday, saying that the United States would consider imposing sanctions without the United Nations if the Security Council proves unable to make a decision.He also warned that the North would risk "certain, terrible defeat and destruction" if it retaliated.The remarks, made in nationally televised interviews as Mr. Clinton sailed toward France for the commemoration of the D-Day landing, came shortly after Defense Secreatry William J. Perry suggested publicly for the first time yesterday that Washington would be prepared to go outside the United Nations to rally Asian and European allies to isolate North Korea economically.

TOKYO --Questions over the effectiveness of the Security Council's punitive sanctions against North Korea for its claimed nuclear test grew yesterday, as both South Korea and China - the North's two most important trading partners - indicated that business and economic relations would largely be unaffected. A day after the council unanimously passed the resolution after nearly a week of intensive diplomatic negotiations, the South Korean government said it would still pursue economic projects with North Korea, including an industrial zone and tourist resort in the North.

WASHINGTON -- North Korea announced yesterday its withdrawal from the international agency monitoring its nuclear development program, a move that the Clinton administration warned was "a very, very serious development."The reclusive Communist nation also said that inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) "will have nothing to do any further in our country." Two IAEA inspectors are being asked to leave the country, according to a statement Friday by Yun Ho Jin, North Korea's envoy to the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton, reacting to signs that North Korea might be retreating from confrontation yesterday, said that the United States would reopen talks if Pyongyang was prepared to "freeze" its nuclear program and accept international safeguards."

WASHINGTON -- The United States is moving closer to seeking United Nations sanctions against North Korea over its refusal to allow nuclear inspections -- a confrontation that could pose a serious test of President Clinton's skill and determination in world affairs.A month after North Korea agreed to cooperate on nuclear inspections, the Communist regime is running out of time to live up to its commitments, U.S. officials said."I think we're getting very close to the end of the road on this one," a senior administration official said late last week.

WASHINGTON -- With his sudden agreement to the first North-South summit, North Korean President Kim Il Sung has expanded his chances of wringing concessions from the West in return for ultimately abandoning a nuclear arsenal.The proposal for a meeting between North and South Korean presidents, the first since the peninsula was divided in 1945, was widely hailed in South Korea as a breakthrough in the nuclear standoff.North Korean President Kim Il Sung proposed the summit through former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who returned to Seoul yesterday after an unofficial diplomatic mission to North Korea and will brief White House officials in Washington this morning.

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea has refused to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to conduct tests of spent fuel that could clear up a mystery surrounding the nation's nuclear weapons program, an agency official said yesterday.North Korea had indicated that it would begin replacing the fuel rods in its biggest nuclear reactor next week and had invited the inspectors to observe the process.But the atomic energy agency, a branch of the United Nations, had also been seeking assurances that it could take measurements of the spent fuel, which could indicate whether North Korea has diverted any for reprocessing for its weapons program.