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UN's
Draft Tepid Response to N.
Korean Missile Portends Rights Worsening
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, April 12 -- A
week after North Korea shot its missile over Japan, the UN Security
Council is
poised to adopt a tepid Presidential Statement calling the "launch" a
"contravention" -- and not violation -- of a 2006 Council resolution.
Japan had said it could live with no less than a resolution, but it is
not
getting one, following Japan's back-down during Taro Aso's meeting with
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, and Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone
talks with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi Saturday in Pattaya,
Thailand.
Even with these compromises, it's reported as of Sunday that
while China having shown its power is on board, Libya might still
abstain if
not vote again and thus kibosh the presidential statement. Inner City
Press has
obtained a copy of the compromise draft
and puts it online, here.
Not mentioned in the draft or negotiations is the
state of human rights
in North Korea. Not mentioned within the UN is any reconsideration of
the UN
Development Program's decision to go back into the country. But now of record is Chinese President Hu Jintao's
congratulations to Kim Jong-il on his 're-election," that "I believe
that the fraternal Korean people will surely register steady fresh
successes in the construction of Korean-style socialism... under the
leadership... headed by you."
Across from UN on April 12, lone figure in
Afghan-style burka, (c) M.Lee
From Pyongyang come two indicative
screeds, against
South
Korea and the U.S..
Without a trace of irony, Kim Jong-il's official Korean Central News
Agency KCNA
states that "from
the legal viewpoint, it is strictly prohibited to use a serious torture
on a
suspect in a bid to ascertain any criminal fact."
Of South
Korea, it syndicates that "If
the Lee group persists in such
reckless moves against the DPRK as now, it will be forced to follow
in the
disgraceful footsteps of traitor Kim Young Sam who was thrown into the
dustbin
of history... Minju Joson says that to do harm to the DPRK through the
'human
rights' racket against it is a foolish and stupid act which can never
be
realized. The Lee group should bear in mind that the said racket is as
adventurous an act as lifting the axe to drop it on its own foot."
The watering down of the Council's response to the
missile firing is
hardly likely to lead to improvements in human rights and civil
liberties
performance.
Looking up First Avenue, burka-ed figure with back
to UN, (c) M.Lee
Sunday in front of the
UN, a
figure dressed in a light blue, Afghan - style burka stood across First
Avenue.
Tourists took pictures. The building was near empty, Ban Ki-moon
nowhere in
sight. The meeting to adopt the draft so tepid on Taepodong -- Tepidong
-- is
slated for Monday afternoon.
Meanwhile,
after UN spokesperson Michele Montas on Thursday answered Inner
City Press'
question of the previous day, whether North Korea had made any
filings under
the Convention on the Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space.
No,
Ms. Montas said, no filings by North Korea.
Click here
for a new YouTube video, mostly UN Headquarters footage, about civilian
deaths
in Sri Lanka.
Click here for Inner City
Press' March 27 UN debate
Click here for Inner City
Press March 12 UN (and AIG
bailout) debate
Click here for Inner City
Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click
here
for Feb.
12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
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Other,
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in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
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2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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