More Stupid Putin Tricks
Following a North Korean nuclear test conducted on October 9 of this year, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted UNSC resolution 1718. According to a Security Council Department of Public Information news release of 14 October, Vitaly I. Churkin, the Russian ambassador to the U.N., elucidated his government’s position on the resolution:
He [Churkin] added that today’s text contained a set of carefully considered and targeted measures, aimed at resolving the main issue: to make the DPRK immediately review its dangerous course, come back to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and resume, without preconditions, its participation in the six-party talks.
The UNSC news release describes resolution 1718 as preventing “a range of goods from entering or leaving the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” and imposing “an asset freeze and travel ban on persons related to the nuclear-weapon programme”.
We know this much: Russia is a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council; it voted for UNSC resolution 1718. Russia is also a member of the vaunted “six-party talks”. We also know that the sanctions imposed by the resolution were designed to “encourage” North Korea to get back in line with provisions of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and “resume, without preconditions, its participation in the six-party talks”.
Merriam-Webster OnLine defines the word sanction as meaning “an economic or military coercive measure adopted usually by several nations in concert for forcing a nation violating international law to desist or yield to adjudication.” By definition, therefore, sanctions involve a certain amount of unpleasantness for the nation being targeted. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have any effect.
So what’s up with this Russian News and Information Agency (Novosti) report of November 29? It’s a report outlining Kremlin plans to write off a large portion of North Korea’s $8 billion debt to Russia! Say what? Does Russia plan to “coerce” North Korea back into the six-party talks by smothering it with kindness?
I know. I know. North Korea is obviously in no position to pay back the debt. But the timing of this Russian announcement is simply absurd. So much for making “the DPRK immediately review its dangerous course”….
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