UN Holds Crisis Meeting

Japan, Britain and the United States met within the United Nations Security Council last night in order to discuss over delivering a firm answer regarding the test-firing of seven ballistic missiles by North Korea yesterday, in violation of the 1999 moratorium on this issue. To make matters worse, North Korean officials announced yesterday that more tests would follow.

Ambassadors from the above mentioned countries were thus summoned for an emergency meeting of the Security Council to find a potential compromise solution, since the situation is all the more serious since Western governments released very aggressive responses. They managed to draft a UN resolution that urges the Pyongyang administration to "immediately cease the development, testing, deployment and proliferation of ballistic missiles" in compliance with the 1999 moratorium provisions.

Moreover, the resolution calls on all countries which are members of the United Nations to cease all supply shipments to North Korea, that are related to commodities and know-how and that may be used for the missile program the country develops.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice issued an official statement in Washington, saying that Pyongyang must halt its missile launches and return to six-nation talks, while the Japanese ambassador to the UN, Kenzo Oshima compared the present crisis with the 1998 one and concluded that the former is "far more serious" because North Korea has already announced that it has improved its nuclear capabilities since then. John Bolton, the US ambassador to the United Nations, stated that discussions last night were "very interesting, because no member had defended what the North Koreans have done", not even China, who is known to be a political friend of North Korea and has resisted UN formal resolutions against this country up to now.

Nevertheless, it will take a few days until the United Nations negotiates a final official resolution.