By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, April 12 -- The impending North Korean missile launch has been a constant buzz at the UN Security Council this month. Council President Susan Rice has taken stakeout questions on it, and spoke about it on CNN. Then on Thursday it happened, and the rocket failed.
The Security Council as it happened was meeting, Deputy Permanent Representatives negotiating a draft resolution to send an advance team to Syria.
Reporters for Japanese media appeared at the stakeout, expecting immediate action. But the failure of the missile both led to some expressions of glee, some of disappointment or anti-climax, and to confusion about how the Council would react.
A well placed Council member told Inner City Press to expect just a Press Statement, far less than a resolution or Presidential Statement. The US Presidency did schedule a meeting, but it was said not to be any emergency session, just in the normal course of Council business.
Earlier on Thursday, Ambassador Rice had said
"Well, I've said that we think the Council should respond credibly. I believe it will. I'm not going to pre-sage a negotiation that hasn't begun, before a launch that hasn't happened. We have said and others have said that the wise thing would be for North Korea to forgo this provocative and ill-considered action, which is in blatant violation of international law and their international obligations. Every time they go down a path such as this, their isolation intensifies, the needs of their people increase, and they become more and more out of the bounds of the international community. That will be the case if they do so again."
Meanwhile there was news of a coup d'etat in Guinea Bissau, a country already on the Security Council's agenda. That too will be dealt with, in the Council's fashion, on Friday. Watch this site.
