February 13, 2003

North Korea defiant after UN decision

North Korea has responded defiantly to the decision by the United Nations nuclear watchdog to refer it to the UN Security Council for breaching nuclear non-proliferation agreements.

A senior official in Pyongyang, Ri Kawng-Hyok, told the French news agency AFP that North Korea had a right to self-defence and, if provoked, had the ability to strike American targets anywhere in the world.
He also called on the Security Council to investigate the United States' own nuclear programme.

North Korea's comments are a typically bellicose response from the secretive communist state, says the BBC's correspondent in Seoul Caroline Gluck.

They come just a day after the head of the US Central Intelligence Agency, George Tenet, warned that North Korea possessed a long range missile capable of reaching the West Coast of America.
It raises the possibility of economic and political sanctions against Pyongyang - a move North Korea says it would regard as a declaration of war.

Are they going to declare war against everybody?
Wouldn't surprise me actually.

[...]Under its charter, the IAEA must report any violations of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty to the Security Council, and Pyongyang had been in "chronic non-compliance since 1993", he said.

Well, that pretty much makes Bill Clinton and Madame Albright look like (bigger) chumps, doesn't it?

He said North Korea was only a "month or two" from producing "a significant amount of plutonium" that could be used to make nuclear weapons.
[...]China, while backing the decision by the IAEA's 35-country board, warned the Security Council against getting involved.

"The UN Security Council's involvement at this stage might not necessarily contribute to the settlement of the issue," China's ambassador to the UN, Zhang Yan, said on Thursday.

"The only correct and effective approach... is through constructive dialogue and consultations on the basis of equality," he said.

Was it with these Chinese?...they always sound like they're saying absolutely nothing.
Must be the language barrier.

[...]The EU has also voiced its concerns, especially regarding possible sanctions - and Russia and Cuba refused to vote through the IAEA referral, saying the decision would detract from diplomatic efforts.

No wonder President Bush's hair is gray!
After being attacked on 9/11 and launched into WWIV [the experts are now saying that the Cold War was WWIII--ed.], the U.S. doesn't need to have all the other major powers lose their collective minds, but that's our lot, it seems.
I'm not sure what referring this NorK nuke problem to the UNSC will accomplish, given their debacle of handling the Iraq problem so far, but unless and until the UN has definitely proved itself to be irrelevant, we should go through channels with rogue nations like North Korea.
And it makes it officially a world problem and not solely a U.S.-NorK problem.
After all, we are kinda busy right now.
Developing story:

Amid mounting tension Japan warned that it would "use military force as a self-defence measure" if North Korea started to "resort to arms against Japan".

Japanese Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba added that such a defensive move would not amount to a pre-emptive strike.

Now perhaps Kim Jung-Il will realize just what all that saber rattling will get him and it's not full kim chee bowls for everyone.