On
DPRK, After
Chinese
Benchmarks,
"Russia Has
Issues,"
Algeria
Compared
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 22 --
When a draft
resolution on
North Korea
was
formally
circulated to
the 15 members
of the UN
Security
Council
mid-day
on Monday
after
extensive
bilateral
negotiations
between the
US and China,
many assumed
the other 13
members would
just go along,
and quickly.
While
a quick
turn-around
and adoption
is still
possible,
Inner City
Press
learned Monday
night that
"Russia has
some issues"
that it
took up with
the United
States.
Russian
Permanent
Representative
Vitaly Churkin
on his way
into the
Security
Council at 10
am, as
reported
then by Inner
City Press,
said "at
this point
it's a draft
resolution,"
on which the
discussants
are "a broader
range of
delegations
that the US
and China."
He pointedly
said he hadn't
seen the
draft.
Of
possible
unilateral
sanctions by
the US and
Japan, he said
that did
not concern
him; the
buzzword
"counterproductive"
was not
used.
China's
benchmarks
included no
new sanctions
-- that the
Council's
response
be
"proportionate."
In
fact, some
compare the
deadly events
in Algeria
(and relatedly
Mali)
and wonder if
a mere
cookie-cutter
press
statement is
proportionate.
There
are
predictions of
adoption of
the DPRK
resolution,
after some
"smoothing
over," on the
afternoon of
January 22,
before or
after a now
scheduled
briefing and
consultations
on Mali. Watch
this
site.
, 
