At
UN
on DPRK, Quick
Elements to
the Press,
Alongside
Syria and Coup
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
April 13 --
After the
failed North
Korean rocket
launch, the
UN Security
Council
arranged to
get a briefing
from the UN's
Argentine
representative
on Asia, Oscar
Fernandez
Taranco. When
last
we covered
him, he was
giving
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
blessing to
the coup in
the Maldives,
and
surreptitiously
advising
his native
Argentina how
to best raise
the Malvinas
or Falkland
Islands at the
UN.
Despite
polling in
South Korea,
even before
the rocket
launch's
abject
failure, that
people have
many other
more pressing
concerns, the
news industry
must
be fed.
Therefore
these staged
quotes, on
Ambassadors'
way into the
Security
Council:
French
Permanent
Representative
Gerard Araud
stopped and
delivered,
"it's a clear
violation of
the UN
Security
Council
resolutions
and the
Council has
to react. We
would want to
have a strong
reaction today
but it's will
be a
negotiation
with our
friends."
German
Permanent
Representative
Peter Wittig
went further:
"we think it's
a
blatant
violation of
the UN
Security
Council
resolutions...
it's a
provocation
that we of
course
condemn, we
call on North
Korea to
desist from
such
provocations
and return to
the neg table.
North
Korea should
be a
responsible
member of the
international
community,
this missile
launch is that
of a pariah
state."
Actual
regional
player China
was more
restrained,
with Permanent
Representative
Li
Baodong
saying, "we
have informal
consultations.
We hope that
all parties
remain calm,
avoid
escalation of
the tension.
That's our
focus."
A
question is
whether North
Korea might,
now in pique,
move to an
underground
nuclear test.
At
11:15 am the
understanding
was that
there'll be,
for now,
"elements to
the
press,"
followed by
more DPRK
talks.
But
first the
Council will
meet about the
coup in Guinea
Bissau --
Togo's
Permanent
Representative
told Inner
City Press his
country had
asked for the
session --
then about the
pending Syria
draft
resolution on
advance
observers to
Syria, on
which Russian
Ambassador
Vitaly Churkin
said
there has been
a
misunderstanding,
the draft
being too long
and
detailed.
German
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
Miguel Berger
countered, in
Spanish, that
human rights
should be in
the draft.
Watch this
site.
, 
