Spring Break
North Korea continues nuclear missile testing
Zohaib Ahmad
Issue date: 5/29/09 Section: News
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The Security Council had stated that the test was a "clear violation" of a 2006 resolution banning North Korea from conducting nuclear testing and that it would immediately work on a new resolution that could produce even stronger measures.
According to Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, the Security Council is working on passing "a strong resolution with teeth."
"Those teeth could take various different forms - they are economic levers, they are other levers that we might pursue," Rice said to CNN's "American Morning," May 26.
According to Daniel Friedheim, an assistant teaching professor of political science at Drexel, North Korea is determined to continue its current course in nuclear development and will in all likelihood ignore any new regulations.
"It is hard to imagine any UN sanctions and six-party talks that will slow North Korea down," Friedheim said. "Acting on existing resolutions will be more significant than new resolutions."
Rice said the international community would not be intimidated by North Korea's "provocative and destabilizing" missile tests.
"If they want to continue to test and provoke the international community, they're going to find that they will pay a price, because the international community is very clear - this is not acceptable, it won't be tolerated and they won't be intimidated," Rice said.
In response to the testing, South Korea announced that it would join the Proliferation Security Initiative, a U.S.-led non-proliferation campaign involved in searching ships carrying suspect cargo in the hopes of stopping any trafficking in weapons of mass destruction.
However, North Korea had warned multiple times that South Korea's participation in the PSI is equivalent to a declaration of war.
According to Friedheim, this low-level confrontation on the seas makes people hesitant, but may galvanize the UN to support the PSI and take action.
According to the BBC, South Korea's action has led North Korea to abandon the truce that ended the Korean War, threatening military action against South Korea.
"[North Korea] still thinks it's fighting the last battle of the Cold War," Friedheim said.
Friedheim also said the action was "ridiculously out of date" and that North Korea is acting as if only enemies surround it.
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