A Step

16 October 2006



UN Security Council Unanimously Votes for North Korean Sanctions

The United Nations Security Council voted 15-0 on Saturday to slap sanctions on North Korea in response to its nuclear test last week. North Korea blustered and ranted and stormed out of the meeting to which it had been invited. Some of this was theatre, and some of it was symbolic. However, a great many commentators have missed the point. China backed Washington and not Pyongyang.

The sanctions ban arms and parts shipments to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (the official name of the North Korean tyranny in which the people have no say), it authorizes the inspection of North Korean ships and trucks in a search for contraband, and it cuts off luxury goods for the people on the top of the society. It even freezes assets of those outside Korea who aid in the trade – rather like confiscating the assets of drug dealers. The resolution does not authorize the use of force, but that was the price for the “yes” votes from Russia and China. Better a compromise than nothing.

This watered down resolution has annoyed people like Thomas Freidman of the New York Times, who typifies the American chatterati and its inability to understand that many problems are not to be solved but rather managed. He stated on NBC’s “Today” show this morning that the resolution won’t do much, and that the only way for this situation to be solved is for China to “turn off the lights;” that is, cut off all the fuel it provides ahead of the Korean winter. Millions of North Koreans freezing is not going to change anything, however; it wrongly presumes the dictator cares. Instead, there will be lots of cold people, President Kim will still have a small nuclear arsenal that cannot be delivered easily, and he has had that for some months if not years now. The world continues to exist.

This journal has noted that the ultimate solution to the North Korean question will almost certainly require a Chinese-enabled coup d’etat against the sociopathic regime in charge of the nation now. However, the purpose of diplomacy is to allow a party to change its mind or alter its actions short of such radical actions. When even his Chinese backers turn against him at the UN, President Kim Jong-Il may see reason and play as nicely as he knows how (which admittedly isn’t very nicely). Incrementalism in military affairs is the key to disaster; in negotiations, it is the name of the game.

The Chinese could certainly have agreed to more, and the Russians as well. It would certainly have been useful. That said, they did agree to allow UN-sanctioned searches of North Korean vessels on the high seas. Given that North Korea funds itself with drug dealing, arms smuggling and counterfeiting, this will cause trouble for Pyongyang. Those who are impatient have yet to think through what the collapse of the regime will mean to northeast Asia – millions of refugees and a large army without a purpose beyond existing. Before Mr. Friedman and his like-minded crew get too enraged by this resolution, one must consider the alternatives. If things implode, no one will be welcomed there as liberators, there won’t be candy for the troops (North Koreans don’t have rice, let alone candy), and there isn’t any oil to pay for the occupation. The lies about Iraq apply in Korea as well.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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