North Korea has sent a ship to Myanmar (Burma), a nation ruled by one of the few governments more tyrannical than North Korea (though recent statements from Iranian clerics suggest they may be seeking the number one spot on the on the Top Ten list of nations ruled by despotic regimes).
The North Korean ship is probably carrying North Korean weapons. No good can possibly come from a North Korean weapons shipment reaching Myanmar, at least not if you value human life and human rights. And this is where the wonderful United Nations timidly slithers into the story.
On June 12, I wrote that The UN is a Crutch the U.S. Leans on Too Often, because of the feeble sanctions the UN placed on North Korea, due in part to U.S. wishes. The sanctions allow foreign nations to inspect ships heading to and from North Korea pending approval from the nation whose flag the ship is flying. Use of force was not authorized for ships that refuse inspections, according to the Associated Press.
The obvious point here is that no ship with something to hide is going to allow an inspection knowing full well that the party requesting the inspection will do nothing if refused permission to inspect. For a ship, with a cargo operators want hidden, to allow such an inspection defies common sense. Therefore the UN policy will not stop any illegal cargo. I want the U.S. to do more with the Myanmar bound ship and not fail humanity by relying on the UN.
The U.S. has a destroyer following the ship that is heading to Myanmar. The North Koreans have issued threats to the U.S. and any other nation that interferes with North Korea’s business, so the situation of the ship is dangerous. Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, is not saying whether the U.S. destroyer might do more than just track the North Korean vessel, not even whether that destroyer will request permission to board and inspect the ship. Earlier reports were that the U.S. would follow the UN rules, meaning the U.S. would take no action if refused permission.
I have a lot of problems with this entire scenario. First, the UN is not capable of acting as any sort of international police force. The UN lacks the forces and the moral authority to make any decision approving action against a particular nation or nations. The UN’s value is as a place for diplomacy and it should focus on its strengths, not endanger world peace attempting what it is unable to do properly.
No doubt that threats of war from North Korea need to be taken very seriously, and that undermined any real show of strength most UN member nations would otherwise have shown.
Second, I want no part of looking away and allowing a weapons transfer that will bring about more terror and death in Myanmar, or anywhere else. Not when our nation is in a position to prevent the atrocity.
I want the U.S. to demand permission to board the ship, and if refused, I want the destroyer to disable that ship, request permission again, and if refused, I want the ship sunk in the name of human rights. If the Navy is allowed to board the ship and does not find weapons, the ship should be allowed to go free, but if there are weapons they need to be destroyed.
Damn the UN. Full speed ahead.
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…so declare war on North Korea? I don’t think we are in a position to skink every arms shipment going to or from any country with a bad human rights record –I don’t think we would want to be. Didn’t the US craft the position we have in dealing with these ships? Let’s see how the chess game plays out and stick to the two wars we have.
i think they should aboard the ship for inspection. if they can;t sink her. i would then sit back and watch what n koria does. calling their bluff on nukes we have the power to take them out in one big blow.. i just can;t stand crybabys by n koria & us. lets see what kind of pres. we have. i think he week . i also beleive he trying to put this nation in bank rup..
Ok cowboy. Slow down there. The UN is not very powerful as an entity but that’s the way it should be. As part of the international community we need to work along side the rest of the world to deal with N. Korea. N. Korea is a problem for everyone, of which we are the least threatened. Your solution could be the start of world war. What would China think if we did as you suggest? I agree that the ship should be dealt with but I believe that it should be through the proper channels and not as a rogue world power gunslinger.
The UN “resolution” (a term unfit for loose sanctions) does give the power to get the ship searched, albeit indirectly. If the ship denies an inspection, then it is to be tailed into the nearest port where local authorities will search. This is a horribly sleazy move; instead of one of our great nations boarding the ship (declaring war, in N.K.’s mind), we’ll have the officials from a third-party/third-world country take care of it. The goal was to tail the Kang Nam until it ran out of fuel, then tow it into India where U.N. trade sanctions are apparently strictly enforced.
My point is, it’s not entirely true that the ships can’t be searched, but the consequences and responsibilities of searching the ship fall on nations other than the ones that will be fighting this war, if and when it erupts.
I completely agree with you, Robert Siegel. I’ve been doing a Google Search in News for updats on North Korea about twice each day, and found your article as result this morning. I also found a very interesting article, which has left me with a big smile ever since I read it. At 3:01 AM PST this Monday 29 June 2009, Vandenberg AFB in CA launched a Minuteman 3 ICBM, traveled 4200 miles, hit its targets with 3 unarmed reentry vehicles at the Kwajalein Atoll at Marshall Islands. Love the message it sends to North Korea about its threats and planned missile launch possibly toward Hawaii on July 4.
Unfortunately, the US will probably do nothing about North Korean shipping OR missile launches OR nuke tests. Bottom line – everyone is too afraid of what Pyongyang can do to Japan and South Korea with the chemical and biological weapons they already have.
But the logic of that fails me completely. We’re too afraid of NK now to stop them, so we’re going to allow them to add an arsenal of nuclear-tipped ICBM’s to the horrors they can unleash on the world??
Talk about passing the buck – where’s Harry Truman when we need him??
Just now i read that the US, according to some government whatever, basically said that “The sanctions will work and the US will enforce them fully” Something like that. But aren’t they just sitting there watching it? Watching it for what???!!! Saying they haven’t decided if they will even approach the stupid ship? Maybe they are waiting for it to dock. Fine, then do what needs to be done. How can the American people sit by and watch their all-mighty new President sit on this, while gripping about Iran no less! Yep, board it, stop it, sink it, whatever. Why can’t we stop all ships from NK? Stop them all. Anybody that thinks the US should sit and do nothing has no clue what that will cause.
I pretty much agree with the note that Rich left below but I also believe that Jimmy is right about Obama doing almost nothing for any of our wars and the potential of the NK war. As most of you know NK has many nukes and their leader is an almost fully insane little dictator who has way to much power and who calls any routine checks an act of war. I think this all comes down to Kim Johng-Ill being who he is… and if we have a president willing to take any action or not. If you looked at George Bush’s track record no other country wanted to mess with him because he was more than willing to call out the bluffs or war attempt by the other country. Obama has not done any of that yet he has not attempted to block with force he has only gone to the UN to try and put in these ridiculous inspections that can be refused and nothing will happen from there. However, on the same token if we go around sinking all the ships that may be carrying weapons we may end up with another RMS Lusitainia insident. Any step that is taken will have its tolls on american people in fact any people. But if NK ends up firing off their nukes anything could happen to this world and then no one can predict anything for the future for our earth and the existance of the human race.
We need to do the same thing to both North Korean ships and Japanese whalers. Tell them to head home, if they don’t, destroy their ships pilot house. No contamination and the ship becomes useless. Now they can tow it home with their tail between their legs. If they leave it, we decontaminate it and make it an artifical reef.
Hello every one,
Days past, Years Past, there is still no proper progress to handle North Korea to come forward and work together with International Community, they are much stronger now and they dont care any one, so US, EU and other Friendly countries should take utmost care while handling the case of N.Korea. Firstly, we have to give big lesson to PRC and then we can solve long standing uncomfortable issue of N.Korea. You dont know, the main culprit behind the scene is China and Russia also, but China is playing BIG BROTHER Show for his closest gangsters.
As for Burma, they are also relying on China & Russia, they both r getting enormous income from Burma’s Natural Resources so they will protect Burma same as N. Korea, Forget UN, they are not doing enough to stop such problems, they are living in a comfortable life with US Taxpayers and just making drama, that’s all
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