Vol. 73/No. 16      April 27, 2009

The Security Council’s presidential statement condemns the April 5 launch, claiming it was a long-range missile test. North Korea has maintained for months that the rocket was to launch a communications satellite for peaceful purposes.

While a presidential statement is less binding than a resolution, this statement does activate a committee to oversee enforcement of previously imposed sanctions. The committee has until April 24 to come up with a list of specific sanction targets. UN member states may be obligated to freeze the assets of those who do business with North Korea. The statement was adopted unanimously by the Security Council whose permanent members include China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

In response to the moves, the Foreign Ministry of North Korea issued a statement saying that Pyongyang would withdraw from the six-party “nuclear disarmament talks.” Pyongyang has also expelled U.S. and UN nuclear inspectors and said it will restart the nuclear reactor in the city of Yongbyon. The talks have been in place since 2003 with the aim of convincing North Korea to end its pursuit of nuclear energy. They include representatives from Beijing, Moscow, Pyongyang, Seoul, Tokyo, and Washington.

Leading the charge among the imperialist powers are Washington and Tokyo, who had both threatened to shoot down the rocket if they deemed it a missile. Both governments have imposed their own sanctions against North Korea under the pretext of preventing nuclear proliferation. Washington first introduced nuclear weapons in and around the Korean peninsula in 1958, some five years after working people in Korea made a socialist revolution and, in the Korean War, issued U.S. imperialism its first military defeat.
 
 
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