At
UN,
Egypt Not
Among 12 More
Condemning N.
Korea, On
Abductees from
Japan
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 21 --
Proponents of
the North
Korea
resolution in
the UN General
Assembly's
Third
Committee,
formally on
"The
Situation of
Human Rights
in the
Democratic
People's
Republic of
Korea," told
Inner City
Press that the
Arab Spring
would help
them get more
Yes votes than
in previous
years.
And
on Monday
morning the
resolution got
112 votes in
favor, up 12
from the
previous year,
and 16
against, down
two from last
year. Libya
and
Tunisia, for
example, voted
for the
resolution.
Tellingly,
however,
Egypt voted
against. Egypt
still has the
same Permanent
Representative
as it had
under Mubarak,
Maged
Abdelaziz.
Protesters
are still
being killed
in Tahrir
Square, and
both the US
President
Barack Obama
and UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon are
being
criticized for
not saying
enough about
it.
On
DPRK, the
Japanese
Mission to the
UN is known to
have invested
political
capital to
make the
number of
votes in favor
of the
resolution
increase this
year. Japanese
Permanent
Representative
Tsuneo
Nishida's
speech in the
Third
Committee
complained
again that of
the
17 Japanese
people
abducted by
DPRK, 12 have
still not been
returned.
North
Korean Perm
Rep & Ban
Ki-moon
adviser Kim
Won-soo in GA
lobby (c)
MRLee
It
is possible
that the issue
of the
abductees may
incrementally
be "traded
away," like
the issue of
the
mistreatment
of ethnic
minorities
in Myanmar is
being traded
away as the
US, UN and
others rush to
re-engaged
with what the
US calls
Burma.
Footnotes:
Myanmar,
not
surprisingly,
voted against
the DPRK
resolution.
Sudan
also voted no
-- but voted
"yes" to a
separate
resolution
on Friday in
the General
Assembly
linking Iran
to an alleged
plot to
assassinate
Saudi Arabia's
ambassador in
Washington.
Likewise,
Sudan
joined the
forces seeking
to oust
Gaddafi from
Libya. Very
little is
simple at the
UN.
Monday
afternoon
should see the
introduction
of a
resolution in
the Third
Committee on
Syria - watch
this site.
, 
