Russia And China Balk At Sanctions: Here We Go Again
And I thought the 9th Circus Court had the monoply on three-ring events. It seems that Russia and China are not in favor of hard sanctions against North Korea in response to their non-nuclear test earlier this week. And is anyone surprised by this development?
Russia and China on Thursday opposed tough sanctions the U.S. wants to impose against North Korea this week for its claimed nuclear test, saying they want more time to work out a more moderate response to Pyongyang's nuclear brinkmanship.
The United States and Japan, which has already imposed tough unilateral sanctions on the North to protest the reported test Monday, had initially hoped for a U.N. Security Council vote on Thursday. But if Washington wants to get China and Russia - the two council nations closest to Pyongyang - on board, a vote could be delayed until early next week.
China, the North's closest ally, opposes any mention of the U.N. Charter's Chapter 7, which authorizes punishments including economic sanctions, naval blockades and military actions. China and Russia want to see sanctions focus primarily on reining in North Korea's nuclear and weapons programs.
Beijing and Moscow also object to the wide scope of financial sanctions and a provision authorizing the inspection of cargo going in and out of North Korea, council diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because talks are private. There is concern among some diplomats that boarding North Korean ships could lead to a military response from the North.
The U.S. circulated a revised draft resolution late Wednesday, formally introduced it in the Security Council on Thursday and said it would be put in a final form that can be put to a vote on Friday. Britain, France, Japan and Slovakia signed on as co-sponsors.
"We're certainly in favor of keeping all the diplomatic channels open, but we also want swift action, and we shouldn't allow meetings, and more meetings ... to be an excuse for inaction," U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said.
But Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the U.S. should wait for the results of more diplomacy. China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya agreed, saying Beijing would welcome more talks so the Security Council can send a united and forceful message to Pyongyang condemning its reported test Monday.
Churkin said "the international community will easily understand if on the matter of this gravity and importance, the Security Council will take a few more days to have a reasoned and united response to the challenge we face from this explosion in North Korea."
Anyone see similarities here? I do. I see another instance of bureaucratic bungling on the part of a couple nations in the United Nations. This happened repeatedly when the United Nations tried for twelve years to "rein in" Saddam's WMD programs, human rights abuses, flouting of past sanctions, violations of the no-fly zones, etc. It did not rein him in, and it will not rein in Kim Jong-Il.
Quick actions by the Phillipines and Australia have caught North Korea's attention. They are already not happy with those actions. But when Kim Jong-Il saw this story, he applauded his quiet allies, and laughed himself silly. We have seen what dawdling by the United Nations can cause. I suppose that the genocide in Rwanda and Darfur is not good enough for Kofi Annan and the rest of the United Nations. They need to add a few more thousand on the funeral pyre from North Korea, as well.
But the dawdling is the problem. EVERY time the United Nations is faced with a decision like this, it becomes back-scratching time. Schoolyard rules, and just remember who is playing the role of the bully. China and Russia clearly do not want to deal with him because of their alliances with the regime. They have deals going on, and they still support it. Why would they want to change that?
Besides, what people are not paying attention to is the fact that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is watching this all unfold, and is getting ready to laugh himself. He is picking up on new tricks to use when the threats of sanctions grow louder against him. This is why the United Nations is completely useless, and utterly irrelevant. This is literally the 1930s all over again, and we are witnessing the death of the League of Nations. The thing that should scare people is that the League died on the eve of World War II. Is the world ready for another conflict like that? I have my doubts.
Marcie
And I thought the 9th Circus Court had the monoply on three-ring events. It seems that Russia and China are not in favor of hard sanctions against North Korea in response to their non-nuclear test earlier this week. And is anyone surprised by this development?
Russia and China on Thursday opposed tough sanctions the U.S. wants to impose against North Korea this week for its claimed nuclear test, saying they want more time to work out a more moderate response to Pyongyang's nuclear brinkmanship.
The United States and Japan, which has already imposed tough unilateral sanctions on the North to protest the reported test Monday, had initially hoped for a U.N. Security Council vote on Thursday. But if Washington wants to get China and Russia - the two council nations closest to Pyongyang - on board, a vote could be delayed until early next week.
China, the North's closest ally, opposes any mention of the U.N. Charter's Chapter 7, which authorizes punishments including economic sanctions, naval blockades and military actions. China and Russia want to see sanctions focus primarily on reining in North Korea's nuclear and weapons programs.
Beijing and Moscow also object to the wide scope of financial sanctions and a provision authorizing the inspection of cargo going in and out of North Korea, council diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because talks are private. There is concern among some diplomats that boarding North Korean ships could lead to a military response from the North.
The U.S. circulated a revised draft resolution late Wednesday, formally introduced it in the Security Council on Thursday and said it would be put in a final form that can be put to a vote on Friday. Britain, France, Japan and Slovakia signed on as co-sponsors.
"We're certainly in favor of keeping all the diplomatic channels open, but we also want swift action, and we shouldn't allow meetings, and more meetings ... to be an excuse for inaction," U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said.
But Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the U.S. should wait for the results of more diplomacy. China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya agreed, saying Beijing would welcome more talks so the Security Council can send a united and forceful message to Pyongyang condemning its reported test Monday.
Churkin said "the international community will easily understand if on the matter of this gravity and importance, the Security Council will take a few more days to have a reasoned and united response to the challenge we face from this explosion in North Korea."
Anyone see similarities here? I do. I see another instance of bureaucratic bungling on the part of a couple nations in the United Nations. This happened repeatedly when the United Nations tried for twelve years to "rein in" Saddam's WMD programs, human rights abuses, flouting of past sanctions, violations of the no-fly zones, etc. It did not rein him in, and it will not rein in Kim Jong-Il.
Quick actions by the Phillipines and Australia have caught North Korea's attention. They are already not happy with those actions. But when Kim Jong-Il saw this story, he applauded his quiet allies, and laughed himself silly. We have seen what dawdling by the United Nations can cause. I suppose that the genocide in Rwanda and Darfur is not good enough for Kofi Annan and the rest of the United Nations. They need to add a few more thousand on the funeral pyre from North Korea, as well.
But the dawdling is the problem. EVERY time the United Nations is faced with a decision like this, it becomes back-scratching time. Schoolyard rules, and just remember who is playing the role of the bully. China and Russia clearly do not want to deal with him because of their alliances with the regime. They have deals going on, and they still support it. Why would they want to change that?
Besides, what people are not paying attention to is the fact that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is watching this all unfold, and is getting ready to laugh himself. He is picking up on new tricks to use when the threats of sanctions grow louder against him. This is why the United Nations is completely useless, and utterly irrelevant. This is literally the 1930s all over again, and we are witnessing the death of the League of Nations. The thing that should scare people is that the League died on the eve of World War II. Is the world ready for another conflict like that? I have my doubts.
Marcie
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 4:46 PM
1 Comments:
"We're certainly in favor of keeping all the diplomatic channels open, but we also want swift action, and we shouldn't allow meetings, and more meetings ... to be an excuse for inaction," U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said. The NK are experts at more meetings and more meetings. China forced us to the table and I remember the talks and the childish stalling tactics. We settled for the 38th dividing Korea. Rawriter
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