China says North Korea must face 'some punitive actions' after reported nuclear test

UNITED NATIONS -- North Korea must face "some punitive actions" for testing a nuclear device, China's U.N. ambassador said Tuesday, suggesting that Beijing may be willing to impose some form of Security Council sanctions against Pyongyang.\nChina's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya told reporters that the council must give a "firm, constructive, appropriate but prudent response" to North Korea.\n"I think there has to be some punitive actions, but also I think these actions have to be appropriate," he said.\nWang spoke before a meeting of the five permanent members of the Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Japan, to discuss a U.S.-proposed draft Security Council resolution. The resolution would impose an array of sanctions, including a ban on imports of military goods and luxury items and crack down on illegal financial dealings.\nWhile the U.S. and its allies want a swift, tough resolution, the question has been how much punishment China would allow. China has been North Korea's major ally and a source of both food and fuel for the desperately poor nation of 23 million.\nWang's comments suggested that Beijing will at least allow some muscle in the resolution.\nThe meeting ended without any decision. Experts from the 15 Security Council nations planned to convene again to discuss the American draft.\n"We're making progress, and we'll keep at it steadily," Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones-Parry said.\nIn Beijing earlier Tuesday, China's Foreign Ministry vented its anger against its communist ally over the test for a second day, with a spokesman saying that relations had been damaged.\n"The nuclear test will undoubtedly exert a negative impact on our relations," the spokesman, Liu Jianchao, said at a routine media briefing. He said Monday's test was done "flagrantly, and in disregard of the international community's shared opposition."\nWang went a step further than Liu, who said the time was not right for punishment, much less military action.\nChina finds North Korea as a useful if irritating buffer against U.S. forces stationed in South Korea. The worry for Beijing is that too much pressure could cause economically unsteady North Korea to collapse, sending North Koreans streaming across the border into northeast China and inviting intervention by the American military.\nThe North, meanwhile, stepped up its threats aimed at Washington, saying it could fire a nuclear-tipped missile unless the United States acts to resolve its standoff with Pyongyang, the Yonhap News Agency reported from Beijing.\n"We hope the situation will be resolved before an unfortunate incident of us firing a nuclear missile comes," Yonhap quoted an unidentified North Korean official as saying. "That depends on how the U.S. will act."\nThe official said the nuclear test was "an expression of our intention to face the United States across the negotiating table," reported Yonhap, which didn't say how or where it contacted the official, or why no name was given.