UNITED NATIONS - CHINA has told UN Security Council members it plans to block publication of a UN special report that accuses North Korea of violating sanctions on its nuclear program, Western diplomats said.
The UN Panel of Experts on North Korea submitted a report on Jan 27 to the Security Council's sanctions committee, which monitors compliance with UN sanctions on Pyongyang imposed after its two nuclear tests.
Diplomats told Reuters that China informed council members it would block the publication and transfer of the report to the full council. They said China's move was odd since one of the experts who prepared the report, Xiaodong Xue, is Chinese.
The panel's report, which was seen by Reuters, says that North Korea almost certainly has several more undisclosed enrichment-related facilities. It also says that Pyongyang's uranium enrichment program and its development of a light-water reactor are serious violations of UN sanctions.
The report of the panel, which includes experts from the five permanent Security Council members, South Korea and Japan, was partly based on conversations with US nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker, who saw around 2,000 centrifuges used to enrich uranium during a rare visit to North Korea last year.
Western diplomats said they hoped the sanctions committee could meet before Feb. 23. But China has made it difficult to schedule a committee meeting, they said, and wanted as few details as possible of the panel's enrichment assessment and Mr Hecker's visit to North Korea mentioned in the committee's quarterly update. -- REUTERS
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