Posted on 10/09/2006 12:03:52 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
UNITED NATIONS - The United States proposed stringent U.N. sanctions Monday against North Korea, including a trade ban on military and luxury items, the power to inspect all cargo entering or leaving the country, and freezing assets connected with its weapons programs.
Those proposals were among several ideas for a Security Council resolution that the United States shared with council diplomats after North Korea reported it conducted a nuclear test. A copy of the document was obtained by The Associated Press.
Security council members earlier condemned North Korea, demanding at an emergency meeting that the communist nation return to six-party talks on its weapons program, U.N. ambassadors said.
The only acceptable sanction would be to block every import of food supplies into North Korea. Stop all trucks and all trains and all cargo flights. How long could they survive without China sending them food?
like a few poisonous VERY LARGE MUSHROOMS.. ;)
I think you´ve made the good point of the thread. While China initially distanced itself from NK, obviously China created this monster and is now unable to control it.
On the plus side, however, is the fact that NK´s technology is obviously pretty lame, it knows it would not survive if it attacked any of its near neighbors because we would take it out immediately (and probably so would China), and at the moment, it´s not much of a threat, quite frankly. I think China actually wants to be the one to control it, and I hope China comes forward and does so - the fact that China made negative statements was encouraging.
Personally, I´m much more worried about Iran. The Iranians have a world conquest program in mind, and once their nukes are up and running, they will use them. And nobody in the ME seems very interested in controlling them.
Better yet, lets wrap a wet paper bag around them... That will do it!!!
Blockade North Korea, tell China to get on board or let their cheap crap destined for Wal-Mart sit and rot in their ports.
Update to article..
UNITED NATIONS - The United States proposed stringent U.N. sanctions Monday against North Korea, including a trade ban on military and luxury items, the power to inspect all cargo entering or leaving the country, and freezing assets connected with its weapons programs.
Security council members earlier condemned North Korea for its reported nuclear test, demanding at an emergency meeting that the communist nation return to six-party talks on its weapons program, U.N. ambassadors said.
The U.S. proposals were among several ideas for a Security Council resolution that the United States shared with council diplomats after North Korea reported it conducted a nuclear test. A copy of the document was obtained by The Associated Press.
The document says that the United States wants the resolution to fall under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which deals explicitly with threats to international peace and security, as well as acts of aggression. Chapter 7 grants the council the authority to impose a range of measures that include breaking diplomatic ties and imposing economic and military sanctions to taking military action.
Military action, however, is far from anyone's minds.
"We believe that highly provocative act requires a very strong resolution explicitly under Chapter 7 that provides for sanctions against the North Korean regime," the document said.
Among the ideas are proposals to:
• Prohibit trade in materials that could be used to make or deliver weapons of mass destruction.
• Require states make sure that North Korea not use their territory or entities for proliferation or illicit activities. Financial transactions that North Korea could use to support those programs would also be banned.
• States would have to freeze all assets related to North Korea's weapons and missile programs, as well as any other illicit activities it conducts.
• Authorize inspection of all cargo to and from North Korea to limit proliferation.
• Ban trade with North Korea in luxury goods and military items
Ambassador John Bolton told the Security Council that Washington would view a North Korean attack on South Korea or Japan as an attack on the United States, U.N. diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed. The United States has defense agreements with Tokyo and Seoul, and thousands of U.S. troops are stationed in both countries.
President Bush said that North Korea's action deserves "an immediate response by the United Nations Security Council."
North Korea's ambassador to the U.N. remained defiant, saying the Security Council should congratulate North Korea for its nuclear test instead of passing "useless" resolutions or statements.
Ambassador Pak Gil Yon told reporters he was proud of the North Koreans who conducted the test and said it will contribute "to the maintenance and guarantee of peace and security in the peninsula and the region."
"We've already said that were there to be a nuclear test it would be a threat to international peace and security," Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones-Parry said. "I think it follows that action under Chapter 7 is what is appropriate. We'll have to look at what sort of measures can be agreed by the council but certainly the United Kingdom would support proposals put down to that effect."
Security Council experts were to meet to discuss the U.S. proposals, the ambassadors said.
"No one defended it, no one even came close to defending it," Bolton said of the reported test. "I was very impressed by the unanimity of the council ... on the need for a strong and swift answer to what everyone agreed amounted to a threat to international peace and security."
North Korea was added to the agenda of an already scheduled council meeting that officially nominated South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon as the next secretary-general, and he said he would work to resolve the North Korean crisis.
If appointed to the top job, Ban said he would "contribute as much as I can to the resolution of all kinds of problems including the North Korean nuclear issue that may threaten international peace and security."
The timing of North Korea's test is certain to increase speculation that North Korea wanted to express its displeasure and opposition to Ban's selection as the Security Council's candidate to succeed Kofi Annan.
Ban has said in the past that one of his first acts would be to go to North Korea.
Under the U.N. Charter, the 15-member Security Council makes a recommendation for the next secretary-general to the 192-member General Assembly, which must give final approval. Ban will be the only name on the ballot.
Ban, 62, topped four informal polls in the council, and in the last one he was the only candidate not to get a veto by one of its five permanent members. After that result, the other five candidates dropped out of the race.
In Monday's straw poll, Ban won 14 favorable votes and one expressing no opinion. Most importantly, he won the support of the council's five veto-wielding nations — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.
Ban has been South Korea's foreign minister for more than 2 1/2 years and served as national security adviser to two presidents — jobs that focused on relations with North Korea. He has served as a diplomat for nearly 40 years.
yawn...sanctions? Wake me up when we start to mean business.
ping
I concur, and I'm not suggesting we should rush in with stationing nukes overnight; but it should be an option on the table. If we don't take a strong stance now, things can only get worse over there and elsewhere.
Personally, I´m much more worried about Iran.
No joke - they're not accountable to anyone, and we might not know they've completed a nuclear weapon until Tel Aviv goes up in flames. (Unlike N. Korea, they're less interested in posturing and more interested in annihilating Israel.)
South Korea and China have been NK's lifeline.
SK's economy tanks every time NK rattles the saber.
NK is costing the world's economy as well as fraying our patience.
SK and China could tell NK every time they threaten the financial health of their countries, less food and aid will come to them...according to a financial formula determined by NK aggression.
If the peasants who are eating cardbord heard that they might be reduced to eating rocks, maybe they'd finally do something.
Not the dreaded sanctions. END SARCASM!
Key word here is "proposed". But even still, sanctions, smanctions....
This is more than sanctions, it's a blockade.
The article said -- "Security council members earlier condemned North Korea, demanding at an emergency meeting that the communist nation return to six-party talks on its weapons program, U.N. ambassadors said."
For the second nuclear test that they do, they'll be called a "double bad boy". On the third test, they'll be called a "triple bad boy."
It seems that not only the U.N. won't do anything except flap their lips (anything else doesn't apparently do any good, either) -- but also -- the U.S. won't (and/or *cannot*) do a single thing about it.
Such is the state of things for the U.S. and *any administration* -- it appears.
Regards,
Star Traveler
I'm sure there are plenty of them aboard our naval warships in Japan.
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