N
Korea Missiles Trigger UNSC Meeting
Morning of March 8, DPRK
Letters to UNSG & UK
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
March 6 – Now the UN Security
Council is set to meet on the
morning of March 8 after North
Korea has fired more missiles.
North Korea had denounced that
"U.S. imperialists and the
south Korean puppet warmongers
kicked off joint military
exercises for aggression
against the DPRK." In the UN
lobby on the morning of March
6, a North Korean diplomat
asked Inner City Press, what
is more threatening, these
four missiles or the US aircraft
carriers?
Now Inner
City Press has published
DPRK's letters to UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres, on
abductions, here, and to
the UK as UNSC President, here.
On the evening of
March 6, the US Mission to the
UN said that "[f]ollowing the
request by Japan and the
United States, consultations
on Non-Proliferation/DPRK will
take place during the morning
of Wednesday 8 March. At the
request of the SRSG, Syria
consultations will now take
place at 3pm on Wednesday,
rather than at 10 am."
The North
Korea launch and request came
while the UN Security Council,
at least most members, are in
Nigeria. They are set to meet
in New York on Wednesday, March
8 about Syria - and now, North
Korea. Will a Press Statement
come faster and more detailed,
given the argument that these
launches make China more angry
as they tend to justify the
THAAD deployment China
opposes? As Inner City Press
first reported, the new North
Korea sanctions report by the
UN Panel of Exports, which
Inner City Press puts
online in full here,
lists not only weapons sales
to Egypt and the Democratic
Republic of the Congo and
cites Sudan and Sri Lanka -
but also has this on Nigeria,
which the UN Security Council
is currently visiting:
"Malaysia-Korea Partners Group
of Companies lists as one of
its mainactivities overseas
construction, including of
statues, in Africa. The
company’s promotional video
states that its 'formula for
success is a powerful mix of
Malaysian products and Korean
labour and technology.' One of
the company’s construction
projects is the renovation of
the embassy of the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea in
Nigeria." Note 195.
The
Security Council and the
correspondents invited to
cover its trip didn't in
Cameroon address the abuse of
Anglophones in that country.
Will they be checking in on
this other issues ostensibly
of so much concern?
Sudan was
removed from some UN sanctions
just before January 21. From
Paragraph 106: "the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea
supplied 100 122-mm precision
guided rocket control sections
and 80 air attack satellite
guided missiles (AGP-250, for
ground attack) to Sudan Master
Technology Engineering Company
in two contracts of 29 August
2013, worth €5,144,075 and
signed by reported KOMID
president Mr. Kang Myong Chol
(alias Pak Han Se), using a
reported KOMID front company,
Chosun Keuncheon Technology
Trade Company. The Member
State provided travel
information on KOMID officials
responsible for the contracts.
The Sudan has not responded to
the Panel’s enquiries."
In paragraph 103
of the report is it recounted
that "a diplomat of the
Democratic People’s Republic
of Korea named Mr. Kim Hyok
Chan, and another Angola-based
diplomat named as a Green Pine
representative, Mr. Jon Chol
Young, traveled together to
Sri Lanka three times (between
2014 and 2016) to discuss
shipbuilding projects.
Described as boat-building
experts, they reportedly met
with the State Minister of
Defence of Sri Lanka on 5
November 2015 to discuss
building naval patrol vessels
at a Sri Lankan shipyard prior
to sale to its navy. The Panel
has yet to receive a reply
from Sri Lanka."
More
than 24 hours after North
Korea's missile launch, and
that government calling it a
success, Japan's Mission to
the UN tweeted that it had
requested an urgent UN
Security Council meeting along
with South Korea and the
United States.
And even
before the meeting a Press
Statement was agreed to.
Sweden tweeted
it first; Inner City Press
asked the Council's president
for February Ukraine to
confirm it was agreed before
the meeting and they did.
Inner City
Press asked Japan's Ambassador
Koro Bessho if any member had
brought up the THAAD missile
deployment by the US in South
Korea. He told Inner City
Press to ask the country it
thinks may have raised it.
Watch this site.
While that
meeting took place, this from
US Ambassador Nikki Haley on
the North Korean Missile
launch: “We call on all
members of the Security
Council to use every available
resource to make it clear to
the North Korean regime – and
its enablers – that these
launches are unacceptable. It
is time to hold North Korea
accountable – not with our
words, but with our actions.”
Under
Samantha Power, the US Mission
was selective in how it doled
out information, and ignored
the UN's eviction and ongoing
restriction on the Press which
reports on UN
corruption. This should
be changing, but hasn't yet.
Watch this site.
After North Korea
conducted its last
nuclear test, the UN Security
Council met on September 9 and
issued a Press Statement.
Inner City Press asked
South Korea's then-Ambassador
Oh Joon (who went on to
support Ban Ki-moon's failed
campaign for South Korea's
presidency) if the THAAD
deployment didn't in some
sense escalate things.
Pressed, Oh Joon said,
“China's nuclear deterrence
doesn't have anything to do
with this issue.”
Now on November 30 a new
resolution passed 15-0 (full
text on Scribd here), after
the US election, with the
Obama administration and US
Power and Mission in lame duck
status.
Both China and Russia spoke
against the deployment of the
THAAD system in South Korea.
But even the word wasn't
mentioned in the three
questions pre-picked by
Samantha Power's spokesman
(Reuters, Kyoto, KBS), much
less in the answers. More was
said of South Korean
Ambassador Oh Joon flying to
Korea tonight - to work on a
Ban Ki-moon presidential
campaign? Inner City Press
asked, but it was not answered
at the end.
Ban Ki-moon came to speak,
which he doesn't do on other
countries - essentially, video
for a run for President of
South Korea. US Samantha
Power, when she mentioned the
ban on monuments sales, cited
only Robert Mugabe and Laurent
Kabila, not those of other US
allies.
Afterward at the stakeout,
asked by KBS what chance these
new “statue” sanctions have of
stopping North Korea, Power
made dubious analogies to
sanctions not only on Iran but
also South Africa and Serbia.
It's a problem from hell,
including these unfettered
journalists who want to ask
non pre-picked questions...
But it'd be
“prohibiting member states
from buying North Korean made
statues. The DPRK has
developed a cottage industry
building statues in numerous
African states, mostly via the
Pyongyang-based Mansundae Art
Studio. Mansudae’s work can be
seen in Cambodia, Angola,
Benin, Chad, the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Equatorial
Guinea, Ethiopia, and Togo.”
***
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