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China and Russia on Wednesday submitted their own resolution on North Korea's missile tests to the UN Security Council. It condemns last week¡¯s tests, calls on the North to declare a moratorium on missile testing and return to six-nation talks on its nuclear program, and urges UN members not to supply or import missile-related parts, materials and technology to and from North Korea.
The U.S. and Japan submitted their resolution, which contains binding sanctions against the North, the previous Friday. The UN will determine the level of pressure against the North with a compromise between the two resolutions.
Washington and Tokyo had been preparing the resolution since May, when they spotted preparations for the launches in the North. Thoroughly sidelined by then, South Korea is said to have learned only belatedly what the two were planning. Even if they wanted to, Washington and Tokyo would have had little joy discussing the matter with Seoul, which took the view that Pyongyang was preparing to launch a satellite. China and Russia, in submitting their resolution, only asked South Korea by phone to support their draft instead of the Washington-Tokyo one.
Thus isolated, South Korea clung to resolving the issue by way of one-nation politics: it would deal with the missile issue and the question of the six-party talks in inter-Korean ministerial talks. The North was having none of it, refusing point-blank to discuss anything not on the approved agenda. Instead, it made the preposterous demand that since its ¡°military first¡± policy protects the South with its nuclear weapons and missiles, the South should give it the rice it promised. When that demand was rejected, the North Koreans stormed out with the empty threat that the South ¡°will pay the price.¡±
Six of the seven missiles the North fired last week have South Korea in range. Seoul, in other words, is the prime concerned party in this crisis, yet it has been sidelined by both sides. A slap in the face, if ever there was one.
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