By Peter Koenig
Global Research, December 25, 2017
Url of this article:
https://www.globalresearch.ca/
Pyonyang’s urban skyline, competing with Manhattan and the Trump Tower?
The
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is being choked into
submission if not starvation by the UN Security Council, by a vote of 15
: 0; i.e. unanimously. None of the 15 UNSC states, let alone the five permanent members, have had the guts to say no to a killer Resolution,
drafted and proposed by the United States of America, a name that
increasingly stands for international rogue and crime nation.
The New York Times reports on 22 December 2017:
“President Trump has used just about every lever you can use, short of starving the people of North Korea to death, to change their behavior,” the White House homeland security adviser, Thomas P. Bossert, said Tuesday. “And so, we don’t have a lot of room left here to apply pressure to change their behavior.”
Two immediate questions come to mind – first, who is Trump to blackmail the UNSC into punishing nations which do not bend to the empire’s wishes?
Yes,
blackmailing, because that’s exactly what is categorically part of the
chief rogue’s international behavior. Case in point is the recent UN
Resolution to nullify Trump’s unilateral decision to declare Jerusalem
as Israel’s capital, when he, the Donald, threatening he would watch
closely who would vote against the US, in view of punishing those
nations monetarily or with other sanctions; and second, how come Russia and China went along with this literally genocidal program of sanctions contained in this UNSC Resolution?
Both
Russia and China know that Washington’s arguments against the DPRK are
based on a web of lies. That everything coming out of Washington is a
lie, or untruth, or omission of facts – is well known around the globe.
But in this case, where two ascending super-powers, Russia and China
have the veto right to say NO to these illegal sanctions, it begs the
question, why’ didn’t they use their veto?
Even
more so, since Russia and China are both also ‘sanctioned’ by
Washington for not ‘behaving’, and because Russia and China are natural
allies of North Korea. – Why were they going along with Washington’s
blackmail? – A veto could have sent a clear message to the sort of
preposterous Nikki Haleys and Donald Trumps of this world, that there is
no more fear of the devil, but that the power plates are clearly
shifting away from Washington.
Was it out of fear that the madman could possibly press the red bottom, if provoked? – Voting with the madman is certainly no reason to believe that the Mad Man will not press the nuclear bottom. – Then, what kind of diplomacy is it? – The fear of more sanctions directed at Russia and China?
This
would be outright ridiculous, as both countries, founders of the
Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), are almost fully detached from
the western dollar economy and are heading a new economy that already
comprises about half of the world’s population and one third of the
globe’s economic output. Hence, they can function fully independently
from the west. There are no fears of sanctions either.
Then why?
Maybe
because they, Russia and China, want to show the world that no matter
how they vote, they will do what they deem correct, like in this case
not adhering to the sanction, as they will not let North Korea’s people,
their friends and allies, suffocate to death. This would tell those
nations who still do not dare contradicting the US of A – “Don’t be
afraid, we are on your side.”
Already
a month ago, Reuters reported that according to the North Korean
representative at the UN Geneva, those who most suffer from the
sanctions are women and children. This is a classic. It applies almost
everywhere when sanctions are dished out. For example, in Iraq where
under the Clinton sanctions program, following a 1995 UN report,
“576,000 Iraqi children may have died since the end of the Persian Gulf war because of economic sanctions imposed by the Security Council, according to two scientists who surveyed the country for the Food and Agriculture Organization.”
In addition, the study found “steeply rising malnutrition among the young, suggesting that more children will be at risk in the coming years.” – Indeed, close to a million Iraqis have died as the result of a decade long US-imposed UN sanctions scheme.
Will the world allow similar numbers – or higher – of people to die in North Korea,
just because the DPRK has opted to defend herself against the
self-proclaimed exceptional nation that has for over 60 years refused to
sign a peace agreement and instead constantly threatened North Korea
with annual high-powered military war games along the Korean Peninsula?
North
Korea has done no harm to any other nation. Indeed, North Korea does
not intend to start a war with anyone. North Korea has had the courage
and strength to rebuild as a socialist nation in almost full isolation
from a 1953 US-devastated country with the loss from then 30% of the
population, about 3 million people. Does anyone wonder why North Korea
has opted to defend herself – come what may?
This is Pyonyang in 1953. Completely destroyed by the USAA (and rebuilt by North Korea).
And does anybody realize, including the 15 UNSC countries having condemned the DPRK to starve, that North Korea has declared numerous times that she wants nothing more than Peace,
that she is willing to sign a nuclear weapons disarmament program along
with all the other nuclear powers; and she is ready to negotiate, as
long as Washington stops its high-handed and dangerous military
maneuvers and jet fighter territorial overflights?
North Korean kids (image left)
Why
would North Korea, or any nation for that matter – not have the same
right as the US, UK, Russia, China, France, Israel, India, Pakistan, and
the NATO member nuclear weapons sharing states of Belgium, Germany,
Italy, Netherlands and Turkey – all of which have allegedly acquired B61
tactical nuclear weapons (Made in America) targeted at Russia, Iran and
other countries in the Middle East allegedly for “defense purposes”?
Turkey
has five times more nuclear weapons than North Korea at its Incirlik
base, Belgium and the Netherlands have together four times m0re nuclear
weapons than the DPRK.
Peter Koenig is
an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a former World Bank
staff and worked extensively around the world in the fields of
environment and water resources. He lectures at universities in the US,
Europe and South America. He writes regularly for Global Research, ICH,
RT, Sputnik, PressTV, The 21st Century (China), TeleSUR, The Vineyard of The Saker Blog, and other internet sites. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed – fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from the Resistance.
Disclaimer: The contents of this article are of sole responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on Globalization will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statement in this article.
Copyright © Peter Koenig, Global Research, 2017
Disclaimer: The contents of this article are of sole responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on Globalization will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statement in this article.
Copyright © Peter Koenig, Global Research, 2017
