UN TAKES FIRM STAND ON NORTH KOREA

Yes, I am only kidding.

However the UN has finally decided to act on the North Korea problem. And as I suspected, it is a terse note that NK can choose to either comply with or not. It will be North Korea's decision. I think we can guess what they will decide.

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said at a White House briefing that the sanctions have “teeth that will bite.” She pointed out that the resolution doesn't authorize the use of military force.

The U.S. is prepared to “confront” a vessel suspected of carrying an illegal shipment and attempt to board it “consensually,” Rice told reporters. If the crew refuses a boarding or to go to a nearby port for an inspection, the U.S. would make clear “whose vessel it is” and the likely cargo, “to shine a spotlight on it, to make it very difficult for that contraband to continue to be carried forward,” Rice added.

Hey you, got anything bad on your boat? No? OK, have a nice day. Yes, that is the United Nations taking a firm stand alright.

On the money front, member nations are urged “not to enter into new commitments for grants, financial assistance, or concessional loans,” or to “provide public financial support for trade” with North Korea.

We will show you, we urge everyone not do do business with North Korea. You hear that China?

Meanwhile, back here in the real world where everything is not lollipops and sunshine:

“Though North Korea’s recent behavior has angered the Chinese, causing them to lose face, you might suspect they would opt against enforcing the strongest measures,” Szechenyi said. “I would not expect them to take the lead and, without that, this is something that North Korea could well ignore.”
“Under no circumstance should there be the use of force or the threat of use of force” in implementing the sanctions in Resolution 1874, Chinese Ambassador Zhang Yesui said in New York. Inspecting vessels carrying North Korean cargo is “complicated” and “sensitive,” he said.

Who is this Susan Rice?

n a 2002 op-ed piece in the Washington Post, former Ambassador to Sudan Timothy Carney and news contributor Mansoor Ijaz implicated Rice and counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke in missing an opportunity to neutralize Osama bin Laden while he was still in Sudan. They write that Sudan and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright were ready to cooperate on intelligence potentially leading to bin Laden, but that Rice and Clarke persuaded National Security Advisor Sandy Berger to overrule Albright.[31] Similar allegations have been made by Vanity Fair contributing editor David Rose[32] and Richard Miniter, author of Losing bin Laden, in a November 2003 interview with World.[33]

Another Progressive Agenda person who obviously is extremely qualified to deal with North Korea, China, and the United Nations in general. I'm glad we all live in such a touchy feelie new world of niceness.

Maybe they can arrest Kim Jong Il for disturbing the peace? I am sure those nuclear explosions are pretty loud.