Skip to main content

UN Council to condemn N.Korea rocket launch Monday

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations Security Council is set to adopt a unanimous statement as early as Monday, condemning North Korea's rocket launch last Sunday and ordering it to comply with existing council resolutions or face further sanctions.

In a rare Saturday session of the 15-member Security Council, diplomats were presented a draft statement drawn up by the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia, and Japan that clearly condemns North Korea's April 5 launch of a rocket that flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific Ocean, and demands that Pyongyang not conduct any further launch.

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, who presented the draft to the rest of the council on behalf of the P5 and Japan, told reporters after their consultations that she believes the statement is very strong and sends a clear and unified message to North Korea that violations of international law will not be treated with impunity and will carry consequences.

Ambassador Rice stated, "the draft that has been shared clearly and unequivocally condemns the launch of April 5; it makes it plain that this launch contravenes Security Council resolution 1718. It demands that the DPRK not conduct any further launch and it calls upon the DPRK as well as all member states to fully implement their obligations under 1718."

Ambassador Rice said the statement also raises the possibility of additional sanctions against North Korea if it does not comply. "And it [the draft] decides that there will be additional strengthening of the measures contained in 1718 through the designation of entities and additional goods - the entities once designated would be subject to an asset freeze, and the goods would be prohibited to be transferred to or from the DPRK," she continuted.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

India's swine flu death rate is increasing

Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in...

Snake bite deaths

Monday, July 06, 2009 COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan government recorded some 33,000 snake bites in 2008, with most of the victims coming from remote villages.The Department of Government Information said in a statement that most of the snake bite cases could be fatal if neglected.The statement said snake bites are often neglected in Sri Lanka as victims do not seek treatment at hospitals where advanced medication is available. Instead, the victims rush to traditional type of treatment which could be a risk, reports Xinhua.Snake bites death at domestic level, outside hospitals, go unrecorded, said the statement.Most victims of snake bite are from the rural and remote villages where there is no electricity after dusk.Statistics show that Sri Lanka has over 90 species of snake with around 10 species possessing venom capable of killing a human being.In Sri Lanka the annual death rate due to snake bite envenoming is one of the highest in the world being 6 in 100,000 population.

Suicide bombings kill 18 in Iraq

Thursday, August 13, 2009 MOSUL: At least 18 people, most of them members of the ancient Yazidi religious sect, were killed when two suicide bombers blew themselves up on Thursday in a packed cafe in northern Iraq, a local government official said.At least 31 people were also wounded after the bombers detonated suicide belts packed with explosives in the cafe in Kalaa town, in the district of Sanjar, local district chief Dakheel Qassem Hasoon, told a foreign news agency."Two suicide bombers entered the Cafe Barbaroz at 4:30 pm (1330 GMT) and blew themselves up, killing 18 civilians and wounding 31. Most of the victims were Yazidis," Hasoon said.Kalaa, northwest of the insurgent stronghold of Mosul in northern Nineveh province is predominantly populated by the minority Yazidi religious sect, as well as Arabs and Kurds.The attack is the deadliest since Monday, when 51 people were killed across Iraq, including 28 members of the tiny Shabak sect cut down when two truck bombs det...