UN: Japan is pressing the United Nations Security Council to vote this weekend on a resolution that would impose sanctions on North Korea in response to last week's missile launches.
Tokyo wants to bring the resolution to a vote, despite China's threat to veto any measure that includes sanctions, and invokes Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which is binding on all member states and could be used to justify an armed response to North Korea.
China and Russia have proposed their own resolution which condemns the missile launches but drops mandatory sanctions, Chapter 7, and the declaration that the missile launches threatened international peace.
The US and Japan have welcomed the decision by China and Russia to back a resolution rather than a weaker council statement but criticised the new draft for eliminating crucial elements.
The China-Russia text strongly deplores the multiple missile launches by North Korea and urges, rather than demands, that Pyongyang institute a moratorium.
The UN moves came as talks between South and North Korea collapsed in acrimony, with the North rejecting South Korea's call for an end to the missile tests and a return to negotiations and demanding more economic aid from Seoul.
US chief negotiator Christopher Hill returned to Washington from Beijing yesterday, declaring there was no sign North Korea was prepared to return to the six-nation talks or that Chinese overtures to Pyongyang had had any impact.
"So far they don't seem to be interested in listening, much less doing anything. I think the Chinese are as baffled as we are," he said.