After
DPRK
Rocket
Failure,
Non-Urgent UN
Meeting, Press
Statement
Expected
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
April 12 --
The impending
North Korean
missile launch
has
been a
constant buzz
at the UN
Security
Council this
month. Council
President
Susan Rice has
taken stakeout
questions on
it, and spoke
about it on
CNN. Then on
Thursday it
happened, and
the rocket
failed.
The
Security
Council as it
happened was
meeting,
Deputy
Permanent
Representatives
negotiating a
draft
resolution to
send an
advance team
to Syria.
Reporters for
Japanese media
appeared at
the stakeout,
expecting
immediate
action. But
the failure of
the missile
both led to
some
expressions of
glee, some of
disappointment
or
anti-climax,
and to
confusion
about how the
Council would
react.
A
well placed
Council member
told Inner
City Press to
expect just a
Press
Statement, far
less than a
resolution or
Presidential
Statement. The
US Presidency
did schedule a
meeting, but
it was said
not to be any
emergency
session, just
in the normal
course of
Council
business.
Earlier on
Thursday,
Ambassador
Rice had said
"Well,
I've
said that we
think the
Council should
respond
credibly. I
believe it
will. I'm not
going to
pre-sage a
negotiation
that hasn't
begun, before
a launch that
hasn't
happened. We
have said and
others
have said that
the wise thing
would be for
North Korea to
forgo this
provocative
and
ill-considered
action, which
is in blatant
violation
of
international
law and their
international
obligations.
Every time
they go down a
path such as
this, their
isolation
intensifies,
the
needs of their
people
increase, and
they become
more and more
out of
the bounds of
the
international
community.
That will be
the case if
they do so
again."
Meanwhile
there
was news of a
coup d'etat in
Guinea Bissau,
a country
already on the
Security
Council's
agenda. That
too will be
dealt with, in
the
Council's
fashion, on
Friday. Watch
this site.
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