Posted by Tina
By now youve no doubt heard that in response to North Koreas missile launch diplomatic leaders gathered to decide on an appropriate response.
** Japan and its Western allies faced resistance from China and Russia last night in seeking a tough response to the North Korean rocket launch. The rocket passed over Japan, which called an emergency meeting of the 15-nation UN Security Council. Western diplomats say that the launch violated UN sanctions on North Koreas missile programme, and were pushing for a robust response by the council that could include new measures. **
A fine analysis of the situation can be found in the following Wall Street Journal article:
Kim’s Targets, by Andrei Lankov – WSJ
** For decades, North Korea’s inefficient economy has been kept afloat by international aid. At the beginning, this aid — mainly food and energy — flowed from the Soviet Union and China. Since the mid-1990s, South Korea, China and, surprisingly, the United States provided it. (Throughout the last decade there were years when the U.S. was the major provider of food aid to the North.) Pyongyang ensured this flow continued by creating international crises and then demanding payment for solving them. *** This approach works very well, mainly because Mr. Kim and his lackeys do not care about obedience to the international law, nor about the survival of their country’s own population. Sunday’s missile launch is simply the reapplication of this old tactic. **