The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 73/No. 22      June 8, 2009

 
U.S. gov’t threatens
N. Korea after test
(front page)
 
BY BEN JOYCE  
Led by Washington, the United Nations Security Council is threatening to impose new sanctions on North Korea after Pyongyang conducted an underground nuclear test May 25 and three missile launches.

“We are united, North Korea is isolated, and pressure on North Korea will increase,” said Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, referring to the Security Council vote condemning the test. She threatened that North Korea would “pay a price for their action.”

“Mr. Obama’s aides have said that they were determined to organize a significantly stronger response than the Bush administration had managed,” reported the New York Times.

Yukio Takasu, Japanese ambassador to the United Nations, called the test a threat to Japan, Asia, and the world. Tokyo has increased its military cooperation with Washington as part of intensifying pressure on Pyongyang.

The UN Security Council is made up of permanent representatives from China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, plus 10 rotating members, currently Libya, Mexico, Japan, Vietnam, Austria, Turkey, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, and Croatia.

After a brief meeting of the council May 25, Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin, the body’s president, said members “voiced their strong opposition to and condemnation of the nuclear test.” The Chinese government said it was “resolutely opposed to the test.”

All permanent members of the Security Council have nuclear weapons. Washington—the only government to ever unleash nuclear weapons on human beings—had a stockpile of more than 10,500 warheads as of 2002. Although Paris last tested an atomic bomb in 1996, it maintains its nuclear stockpile.

Using the test as a pretext, the government of South Korea announced it will now fully participate in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), which legitimizes piracy by asserting the “right” of governments to arbitrary search and seizure of cargo on vessels the imperialist powers suspect are carrying “weapons of mass destruction.” South Korea has been an “observer” in PSI operations up to now.

Sanctions currently in place against Pyongyang require all UN member states to freeze the assets of institutions and individuals the UN claims are tied to North Korea’s weapons programs, including resources that would contribute to the development of nuclear power, as well as other trade restrictions.

U.S. imperialism and its allies have been trying to punish North Korea for defying their demands for decades. Since the Korean War ended in 1953 with U.S. imperialism’s first military defeat, Washington has used a variety of economic sanctions and military threats against the workers and peasants of North Korea.  
 
 
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