US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley is pushing hard at the UN Security Council for a new round of sanctions against North Korea, related to North Korea firing a “long-range ICBM” earlier this month. That’s facing some serious resistance, particularly from China and Russia.
And while there’s always disputes about the merits of just throwing more sanctions onto the endless pile, the real problem here is less the sanction rationale, and more the “long-range ICBM” basis, which even US officials have conceded is on flimsy ground.
After the missile test, South Korea has quick to point out that the missile was not a proper ICBM because it didn’t have any sort of re-entry capabilities. This was a big problem with any potential long-range flight of the missile.
Pentagon officials later added to the doubts, saying there’s no sign the missile had any sort of guidance system, meaning North Korea couldn’t steer the missile on any long-range flight. Effectively, all North Korea did was take a shorter-range ballistic missile and add a second fuel stage so it would go farther, but doing so in any effective way seems unlikely.
Another good piece on this by Jason.
BUT the Russian Ministry of Defense made the point that the missile tested was no ICBM within 24 hours of the test and RT reported it the next day. The next day the Chinese announced that they had doubts it was an ICBM and it was so reported in Global Times. Finally in the next 24-48 hours the South Korean Intel agencies expressed doubt and later profound doubt that it was a proper ICBM. Lesson 1: Read RT, the news portion, only ~5 headlines a day. Easy. 2. The more people who read RT and Global Times (Chinese) the more pressure the imperial media (that is, the MSM and DemocracyNow) are under pressure to tell the truth.
Read these sources (and also of course the carefully and truthfully edited AW.C ) and the MSM will feel more pressure to stick to the truth.
Nikki Haley is showing herself to be even more stupid, ignorant, Israel-servng and warmongering than her predecessors. The USA makes a practice of ensuring its “UN Reps” have no clue abut diplomacy.
Threats and sanctions are the opposite of methods that will work for peaceful solutions to problems.
You’re 100% correct, Rosemerry, and I couldn’t agree with you more. Why Donald Trump chose a very stupid, ignorant, Israel-serving and warmongering lunatic as Nikki Haley is beyond any logic. I think he was pressured to appoint this ignoramus as US Ambassador to the UN .. I’m sure he wouldn’t have done so under his own accord, he’s not stupid.
Wasn’t Haley Governor of South Carolina at one time? If so, she didn’t handle that job well, either. The only position she could handle well was that of a Waffle House waitress. She made a terrible politician and she’s doing even worse as a “diplomat” .. In fact, she doesn’t even know what diplomacy incurs. She sorely needs a good lesson from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the best accomplished diplomat in the world.
However, I doubt even Lavrov could handle that warmongering idiot. Haley’s an outright lunatic that nobody’s able to handle. Trump had better fire her at once and replace her with someone such as Dana Rohrabacher, who knows exactly what diplomacy incurs, having been on the House Foreign Affairs Committee for several years.
It is sad too that “US Senators” (45 so far) are lining up to push the free-speech-killing law against support of BDS. House members are also supporting it,going completely against US law, but Israel matters much more to these “patriots”.
Trump is being pressured to disallow any talks with DPRK leadership
until and unless the DPRK suspends its nuclear programme as
a prerequisite.
That is not going to happen. Kim is preparing to perform another
long-range missile test within weeks. Today, Trump just put forward
a travel ban on Americans to North Korea. You do the math.
I agree that Trump’s being pressured to disallow any talks with DPRK leaders until and unless the DPRK suspends its nuclear program as a prerequisite.
As you rightly said, that’s not going to happen. Kim’s preparing to perform another long-range missile test within weeks. His last missile test had it flying straight toward the US West Coast .. However, the missile had no guidance system, so it went off course. Will the next one have such a system this time around? Trump’s just put forward a travel ban on Americans to North Korea .. However, how many Americans ever travel there? A good many travel to South Korea, though.
If Trump had any sense, he’d shrug off the Neocon pressure and go ahead with talks with the DRPK leadership. Negotiations beat attacks any time. South Korean President Moon Jae-In’s already planning such talks with his North Korean counterpart, Kim Jong-Un, to defuse the tensions.
On top of which, the missile could, even with a second stage added, only reach Alaska – which is 1,500 miles away from anything else of significance in the US.
So that missile CAN NOT hit US targets on the mainland, even WITH guidance. NK needs to do a lot more work before they can the US mainland.
On top of which, they never would fire at the US mainland unless they were ALREADY being attacked by the US.
So, another “nothing-burger”…
“The real problem here” is Washington’s meddling in the affairs of, and wreaking havoc in, other countries.