Sanctions against North Korea are utterly inadequate

From The Australian Editorial, October 16, 2006 ...

THE UN Security Council vote to impose sanctions against North Korea in response to its boasted nuclear test last week merits applause. But it should be neither long nor loud. The UN has imposed weapons and financial sanctions against North Korea's nuclear program. They include a call for countries to enforce the sanctions by inspecting cargo being shipped to and from North Korea. But there is no talk of military action to enforce the new rule and China has said it will not examine North Korean cargo. That this pusillanimous policy is seen as a sign that the UN is determined to get tough with North Korea demonstrates how little the world has come to expect from the Security Council.

...China does not want the North Korean regime to collapse lest it send millions of refugees fleeing across its frontier. The South Koreans, working on the understandable assumption that the North may be mad enough to unleash armageddon and attack them, are never keen on confrontation. And Russia is happy to leave it to the Americans to take the heat, while sniping from the sidelines to ensure no easy achievements for the US. In terms of trying to stop North Korea building a bomb, and a missile to carry it, the job has been mainly left to the US.

... diplomacy does not work with the North Koreans.... the North Koreans have continued to up the ante, taking all the aid on offer while continuing to try to build a bomb, and a missile to deliver it.

There is no doubting that the diplomacy of containment has failed. But rather than blame the Americans.... it is time to hold the Security Council to account. The very existence of the North Korean regime is an affront to everything the UN is supposed to stand for. Millions are thought to have died in the last famine and malnutrition is a way of life. The country is ruled by hereditary dictator Kim Jong-il, one part buffoon to many parts Big Brother. And its export income depends on running drugs and counterfeit currency and selling weapons.

It is time for the permanent members of the Security Council to stop pussyfooting. Warships serving under UN auspices should now stop and search North Korean ships, and seize contraband. The whole world is watching for a sign that the UN can do more than talk. Especially Tehran, where another rogue regime with ambitions to build a bomb wants to learn what it can get away with.