Posted by
arandomguy on Tuesday, October 10, 2006 4:57:47 PM
China today joined the other world powers, in calling for punishment against North Korea. Until now, China has been the staunchest ally of North Korea, supporting them financially, holding up their economy, and defending them on the world stage when other nations refused to do so.
"I think that there has to be some punitive actions." the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations said in a press conference today about North Korea.
It definitely seems that China has finally realized the threat posed by a nuclear North Korea, and has determined that it cannot afford to ignore this threat to both China and the rest of the world. The fact is, North Korea is extremely unstable, and could almost as easily attack China as anybody else. Nobody has any idea of precisely what North Korea is trying to do - including the Chinese, neghibors to the rogue nation.
Furthermore, the Security Council permanent members - France, Great Britain, China, Russia, and the United States - have all called for tough and quick sanctions, as have a host of other powers including South Korea and Japan. This is good, because the UN is more likely to get something done (something that will actually do some good, as opposed to the usual UN incompetence). This push for sanctions is in spite of the fact that only Russia has been able to confirm that the blast was indeed nuclear.
Unfortunately, neither nation (Russia or China) has yet said they support the use of military force. This is all well and good at the moment - China and Russia never support the use of military force for any reasonable action. However, if military force becomes the only viable solution sometime in the future (sooner rather than later at the rate things are going), they must be willing to support military action.
This will be the ongoing topic of international diplomacy in the next few weeks, and it is an extremely important issue. For me, it illustrates the UN's one final "final chance." Though the UN has had many "final chances" in its 58 - odd years, this one is truly the last straw. The UN was organized for just this purpose - world peace. An unstable, undemocratic, evil regime in control of the most destructive weapons in existance is definitely a threat to world peace. If the UN can resolve this situation adequately, then maybe they are not beyond redemption.
As such, I will withold my usual calls to send the UN to Haiti, until I realize that the UN will again fail.
I try to keep a positive outlook that the UN will succeed, but then I remember their miserable history, and I become discouraged. Maybe I'm putting my hopes in an unrealistic and false scenario - which, I will admit, is most likely the case. That said, I do hope that the UN can resolve this situation because the UN has a noble goal - it just does not work as an organization.