Opinion - Editorials

Unhelpful step

Most of the world may have deplored the nuclear weapons test conducted by North Korea on October 9 but the resolution adopted by the United Nations Security Council on Saturday is unhelpful, provocative, and likely to inflame a situation that is already nasty. The resolution demands that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea "abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programmes in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner" and rejoin the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, which it quit legally, after due notice, in 2003. The goal of securing de-weaponisation in a dangerous neighbourhood may be laudable but the demand that Pyongyang rejoin the NPT is legally untenable and ultra vires the U.N. Charter. It is settled international law that countries cannot be compelled to sign treaties they do not wish to. In terms of its legal position as a state outside the NPT, North Korea is in the same situation India and Pakistan were in when they tested nuclear weapons in May 1998. Indeed, the UNSC acknowledges this when it demands that Pyongyang "return" to the treaty. India and Pakistan paid some kind of price for their defiance of the rules laid down by the unequal global nuclear bargain. But quite rightly, neither was Chapter VII of the Charter invoked nor were sanctions imposed at that time. New Delhi is unlikely to be bothered about the double standards since it is the beneficiary, not the victim. Nevertheless, the way in which the UNSC has outreached its jurisdiction under U.S. pressure is a cause for profound unease.

Russia and China persuaded the United States to soften the resolution in some important respects but the sanctions imposed could still cause unwanted trouble. The authorisation granted to member states to inspect North Korean cargo could lead to the U.S. or Japanese navies interdicting ships on the high seas to or from North Korean ports. The authority granted to member states to freeze North Korean assets linked to its nuclear or missile programmes is too broad. If the freezing of a portion of its foreign bank assets under U.S. Treasury sanctions was a trigger for the nuclear test, there is little sense in tightening the squeeze. What is needed instead, after a suitable cooling off period, is a constructive dialogue. Pyongyang has said it is willing to be persuaded to renounce its nuclear weapons. Harsh sanctions and provocative incidents on the high seas will make the isolated Kim Jong Il regime more, not less defiant. A return to the Agreed Framework type of arrangement in which the nuclear weapons programme is renounced as a quid pro quo for heavy oil and light water reactors is the sensible way out of this crisis.

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