US
Pushes Through UN Resolution Against North Korea
By Peter Symonds
17 October 2006
World
Socialist Web
The
US administration has prepared the way for an escalating confrontation
with North Korea over its nuclear test last Monday, by pushing tough
new sanctions against Pyongyang through the UN Security Council. After
a week of US arm-twisting, China and Russia dropped their objections
to Washington’s draft and joined the unanimous vote for the resolution.
The UN resolution condemned
North Korea’s underground nuclear test, describing it as “a
clear threat to international peace and security”. It demanded
that Pyongyang “abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear
weapons programs,” suspend all ballistic missile activities, return
to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and immediately return
to the multilateral six-party talks “without precondition”.
The resolution calls on UN
member states to ban the sale or transfer of materials and technology
related to so-called weapons of mass destruction, as well as major military
hardware, such as tanks and warships, and luxury items. It also imposes
a freeze on North Korean financial assets and a travel ban on officials
and scientists that have connections to WMD programs. By invoking Chapter
7 of the UN Charter, the resolution makes the measure binding on all
members.
North Korea’s UN ambassador
Pak Gil Yon immediately said his government “totally rejected”
the resolution and condemned the UN Security Council for its “gangster-like”
methods and its “double-standards” for neglecting the nuclear
threat posed by the US to Pyongyang. He referred in particular to Bush’s
2002 speech including North Korea in an “axis of evil” with
Iraq and Iran. Pak warned that if the US continued to “increase
pressure” on North Korea, his government would consider it a declaration
of war and take countermeasures.
There is no doubt that North
Korea’s nuclear test was a reckless and rather desperate act,
which, far from enhancing its security, has played directly into the
hands of the Bush administration and threatens to trigger a nuclear
arms race in North East Asia. But the obvious anger at the UN’s
hypocrisy is certainly justified. While condemning Pyongyang, the UN
Security Council members have nothing to say about Washington’s
long record of bellicosity toward North Korea, threats of “regime
change” and repeated refusal to hold bilateral talks or normalise
relations.
The US ambassador to the
UN, John Bolton, took vindictive delight in including a ban on “luxury
items” in the resolution. Its only purpose is to promote US propaganda
vilifying North Korean leader Kim Jong-il as a playboy who “starves
his own people”. North Koreans have been losing weight, Bolton
told the press, and “maybe this will be a little diet for Kim
Jong-il”. In fact, the US, which has maintained an economic embargo
of North Korea since the 1950s and has exploited its “humanitarian
aid” for political ends, bears a heavy responsibility for the
crisis that led to terrible famines in the 1990s.
North Korea has repeatedly
offered to give up its nuclear programs in return for a security guarantee
from the US and steps to end the US blockade of the country. Following
last week’s nuclear test, Pyongyang declared its willingness to
negotiate the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. North Korea
refused to return to six-party talks, involving the two Koreas, the
US, China, Japan and Russia, after Washington provocatively pressured
a Macau bank to freeze North Korean assets. Under the new UN resolution,
the US efforts to tighten the financial noose around Pyongyang will
obviously intensify.
China, a formal ally of North
Korea, has been caught in a dilemma by the nuclear test. Beijing had
sponsored the six-party talks as a means of defusing the protracted
confrontation over North Korea’s nuclear programs and had strongly
warned Pyongyang against detonating a nuclear device. China is deeply
concerned that Japan will exploit the test to develop its own nuclear
arsenal. At the same time, however, Beijing is hostile to the Bush administration’s
bellicose campaign against the Pyongyang regime and fears that the constant
heightening of tensions in North East Asia is directed at it.
China, backed by Russia,
opposed two elements of the draft US resolution—the use of Chapter
7 of the UN charter, which was exploited by the US to justify its invasion
of Iraq, and the interception and search of cargo entering and leaving
North Korea. According to the New York Times, “tense negotiations”
took place right up to the final minutes before the UN vote. In the
end, the US modified the resolution to invoke Article 41 of Chapter
7, which specifically refers to the use of “measures not involving
the use of armed force”.
Nevertheless, the resolution
does provide for “cooperative action including the inspection
of cargo to and from the DPRK [North Korea]” to prevent “illicit
trafficking” in weapons of mass destruction. The clause declares
that such action must be in line with international law, and, at China’s
insistence, omitted a specific reference to the use of military force
to stop ships in international waters, but it does provide the US with
a lever to press ahead with its provocative Proliferation Security Initiative
(PSI).
Under the PSI launched in
2003, the US and its allies, including Japan and Australia, have been
preparing to intercept ships on the high seas and aircraft in international
air space on the pretext of searching for weapons of mass destruction.
Bolton, as US Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control, was responsible
for pushing the proposal, which sought to legitimise what is illegal
under international law and is regarded as piracy or an act of war.
In 2003, Bolton argued that the interdiction of ships and aircraft was
permitted by international law.
Less than an hour after the
UN resolution was passed, China’s UN ambassador Wang Guangya said
China would not participate in any inspection regime because it would
create “conflict that could have serious implications for the
region”. He told reporters: “The PSI, politically, China
will not do it. I believe the exercises under the PSI will easily lead,
whether intentional or not ... to different escalations of provocations.”
Wang urged member states to adopt a “prudent and responsible attitude”
on inspections and refrain from provocative steps.
Yesterday Bolton cautiously
skirted around the issue of international law, declaring that searches
could take place in ports and at land crossings. He told CNN the resolution
did not call for a sea blockade of North Korea, and interdiction of
banned items could be accomplished without one. However, Australian
Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer announced yesterday that the
Howard government was already considering sending warships to participate
in a blockade of North Korea.
The US and its allies are
clearly contemplating military means to intercept North Korean vessels,
despite a UN resolution excluding the use of armed force. The Bush administration,
which has repeatedly demonstrated its contempt for international law
and the UN, now has the means for engineering incidents on the high
seas that can be used to justify more aggressive action, including the
use of military force, against North Korea.
Not surprisingly, President
Bush hailed the UN response as “swift and tough”. Bolton
said the US was “very pleased” with the resolution, which
was “exactly in line” with its recommendations. US Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice is about to depart for North East Asia to
step up the pressure, on China and South Korea in particular, for a
harder line against North Korea.
The Bush administration responded
to Wang’s comments on Saturday by insisting that China is bound
to carry out every aspect of the UN resolution. “I’m quite
certain that China is going to live up to its responsibilities,”
Rice declared. Bolton remarked that if China were willing to cut its
support to North Korea, it “would be powerfully persuasive in
Pyongyang ... I think China has a heavy responsibility here.”
Washington clearly regards
the UN resolution just as a first step. As Bolton hinted, US pressure
will be brought to bear on China to impose broader sanctions on North
Korea, including on food and oil shipments. China is North Korea’s
largest trading partner and the source of its oil. For all its propaganda
about Kim Jong-il starving his people, the Bush administration would
have no hesitation in crippling the North Korean economy in a bid to
starve the country into submission.
The aggressive US response
to Wang’s remarks further underscores the fact that Washington’s
overriding concern is not the nuclear test or even North Korea. The
US, which is armed with thousands of sophisticated nuclear weapons,
faces no serious military threat from North Korea. The Bush administration
has constantly exploited the North Korean nuclear crisis to heighten
tensions in North East Asia as a means for asserting its domination
against its rivals, especially China.
At the same time, Washington’s
threatening posture against North Korea is also aimed at menacing other
countries targeted by the Bush administration, particularly Iran.
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