Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/unsc1may6dprk070609.html
UNITED NATIONS, July 6, updated -- As the UN Security Council mechanically convened days after North Korea fired seven missiles into the Sea of Japan, the mystery grew around the Kang Nam 1 ship with its reputed cargo of weapons for Myanmar, and the unnamed Malaysian bank reportedly pegged to process Burmese payments.
The place of a middleman between the regimes in North Korea and Myanmar is called by some the vortex of evil. Others apparently call it good business.
Reports -- and photos -- emerged Monday of tunnels in Myanmar designed by North Korean advisers. DVB reports that
"five Burmese companies – Htoo Trading, Kambawza, Asia World, Aden and Shwe Thanlwin – are known however to have provided machinery for the digging of the tunnels... A secret visit by General Thura Shwe Mann, the Burmese regime’s third-in-command, along with 18 other high ranking military officials to North Korea in November 2008, is another indicator of how the two countries have been cooperating. During the visit, Shwe Mann and North Korean Army Chief General Kim Gyok-sik signed an Memorandum of Understanding on further cooperation plans. The Burmese delegation also visited an underground military hardware factory near Pyongyang."
But it is Pyongyang's threats to Japan and Seoul which trigger UN action. Myanmar gets a free pass.
In front of the Security Council late Monday afternoon, Japanese media converged as they did after the last launch by Pyongyang. South Korea's Ambassador came and said they expect the Council to react. Inner City Press asked a Council diplomat when Ban Ki-moon's envoy to Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari is slated to brief the so-called Group of Friends on Myanmar.
This is what Ban said when empty handed he left Myanmar: that Gambari would return to New York and brief the Friends while he traveled on to Geneva -- click here for Inner City Press' UNCTAD story -- Ireland and then the G-8 meeting in Italy.
The diplomat said Ban would have been expected to do the briefing himself, but perhaps with so little accomplished, Gambari would have to do.
A strange theory justifying Ban's apparently fruitless trip to Myanmar began to circulate in the UN on Monday: that it was due to Ban's presence that the Kang Nam 1 did not dock in Myanmar. Since Ban has already claimed on the Charlie Rose television program that he saved 500,000 people in Myanmar, taking credit for the Kang Nam 1's return to North Korea may not be far off.
While the Malaysian bank at issue has so far gone unnamed, one wonders if the UN committee set to finger companies for sanctions this coming Friday might not name the Malay bank. Watch this space.
Update of 5:40 p.m. -- the Council has "suspended" its consultations on North Korea until 6 p.m..
Update of 6:06 p.m. -- a Council diplomat tells the Press that whatever will happen today will happen soon. The crowd of mostly Japanese media expresses a collective desire to leave.
Update of 7:05 p.m. -- First, the Chinese delegation strode out, telling the Press, the President will have a statement for you. Then the U.S. squad, with Susan Rice, Alejandro Wolff and at least two bodyguards, came out, the bodyguards between Ms. Rice and the press. Finally the Ugandan Ambassador, Council president for July, emerged and read out what he called an "oral statement," that the Council condemns the missiles, finding them a violation of resolutions. He was followed by Japan's Ambassador Yukio Takasu, who called the "oral statement" -- less even than a formal Press Statement, which in turn is less than a Presidential Statement which is less than a resolution -- "clear and strong."
Inner City Press asked Amb. Takasu to comment on the Kang Nam ship. Takasu said that Japan had spoken with other neighboring countries about their duty to search such North Korea ships if they came to port. Inner City Press asked, did Japan speak to Myanmar, and what does Japan think of Ban Ki-moon's recent two day trip to Myanmar: success or failure?
Takasu said Japan spoke "bilaterally" to countries in Asia "but not necessarily to Myanmar." He said it was too early to judge Ban's trip, she spoke with Ban and Gambari "during" the trip and would be briefed upon Ban's return to New York. He called the current outcome of the Kang Nam trip a demonstration of the value of UN resolutions. But the Ugandan Ambassador told Inner City Press that the Kang Nam didn't even come up during the consultations, and another Council diplomat confirmed this. Go figure. Watch this site.
