The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, United Nations

The UN Security Council was expected to adopt tougher sanctions targeting North Korea's atomic and ballistic missile programs in response to the Stalinist state's nuclear defiance.

The 15-member body was to meet at 11:00 am (1500 GMT) for a likely vote on a draft resolution agreed by its five veto-wielding permanent members-Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States-plus Japan and South Korea.

The text calls on UN member states to slap biting sanctions on North Korea. They include tougher inspections of cargo suspected of containing banned items related to North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile activities, a tighter arms embargo with the exception of light weapons and new financial restrictions.

Passage is a foregone conclusion-nine votes in favor are required with no veto-after more than two weeks of intensive bargaining among the seven sponsors. The compromise text seeks to punish Pyongyang for its May 25 underground nuclear test and subsequent missile firings in violation of UN resolutions. US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice has said the resolution will send the message that "North Korea's behavior is unacceptable."

It would also signal that North Korea "must pay a price, return without conditions to a process of negotiation and that the consequences they will face are significant."

Despite the escalating showdown, the US envoy on North Korea Thursday voiced hope for a diplomatic solution with Pyongyang and predicted it would eventually return to the negotiating table.

US special envoy Stephen Bosworth told a Senate hearing that Washington was using a variety of tools with North Korea, ranging from sanctions to diplomatic engagement-"if North Korea shows seriousness of purpose."

"In the interest of all concerned, we very much hope that North Korea will choose the path of diplomacy rather than confrontation," he added.

The draft "condemns in the strongest terms" the North Korean nuclear test and "demands that the DPRK (North Korea) not conduct any further nuclear test or any launch using ballistic missile technology."

It declares that Pyongyang "shall abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner and immediately cease all related activities."

But US intelligence officials have reportedly warned President Barack Obama that North Korea intends to respond to a UN resolution condemning its actions with another nuclear test.

Former South Korean foreign minister Song Min-Soon warned this month that the North would continue to test nuclear weapons.

He forecast that the communist state was likely to carry on test-launching missiles of various ranges in a bid to improve their accuracy.

The development of nuclear weapons "is usually completed after five to six tests," he told a meeting of his opposition party.

Japan said Friday that North Korea's only path to "survival" in the global community was to comply with the UN resolution expected later in the day and to cease its missile and nuclear programs.

"Giving serious thought to the UN Security Council resolution is the only way that North Korea can survive in the international community," Japan's top government spokesman Takeo Kawamura said in Tokyo.

The draft resolution requires the Stalinist regime to "immediately retract its announcement of withdrawal from the NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty)" and return immediately to the six-party talks on a nuclear-free Korean peninsula without precondition.

It also calls on member states to prevent the transfer of financial or other assets that could contribute to North Korea's nuclear or ballistic missile programs.

And it extends an assets freeze and travel ban decreed in a 2006 resolution to additional North Korean entities, goods and individuals.

North Korea launched a long-range missile in April, which was roundly condemned by the Security Council. Pyongyang then retaliated by announcing May 25 that it had staged a second nuclear weapons test, following one in 2006.

It also has declared the armistice ending the 1950-53 Korean War as void.