The United States has unveiled sanctions to punish North Korea with an arms embargo for blocking inspection of its nuclear facilities.
The sanctions proposed to the United Nations may not take effect for months. Also Wednesday:
-- In North Korea, former president Jimmy Carter met with aging dictator Kim Il Sung. Carter did not comment on the meeting. But North Korea's government-controlled news service quoted Carter as raising the possibility of full diplomatic relations with Washington - if the isolated communist nation permits open inspections of its nuclear sites.
-- In South Korea, sirens wailed and traffic stopped in Seoul, the capital, during mock bomb and gas attacks. But the government's civil defense drill was dramatically scaled back to avoid war scares.
Today, Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Phil Gramm of Texas, are heading to South Korea to inspect U.S. military readiness.
The U.S. sanctions proposal stems from U.N. anger over nuclear inspections. The United Nations wants to ensure North Korea is not making weapons. North Korea insists it isn't but won't allow a look.
U.S. Ambassador Madeleine Albright's proposal is likely to take weeks to pass. It contains a 30-day waiting period after approval.
The proposal says sanctions would go into effect unless North Korea "has agreed to meet its obligations" to Interational Atomic Energy Agency inspectors.
This buys time for compromises.
Albright described a "carefully calibrated" two-stage plan to punish North Korea.
A mandatory arms embargo, although not likely to be enforced militarily is the toughest measure in the first stage.
The arms embargo could cost economically hard pressed communist North Korea $ 50 million a year in its chief export to such mainly outlaw regimes as Iran, Iraq, Syria and Libya. But no specific financial penalties are specified until the second stage.
"The more that they break (the rules) the more they are punished," Albright said.
Other bans:
-- Technical and scientific cooperation.
-- U.N. economic assistance.
-- Reduced diplomatic activities with North Korea by other nations and U.N. agencies.
-- Cargo air traffic.
In the second phase, requiring another Security Council meeting, financial transactions would be frozen. That would cut off the up to $ 1 billion annually sent home from Japan by Korean workers.
