UNITED NATIONS: South Korea called on the divided UN Security Council on Thursday “to break the silence” over North Korea’s escalating missile tests and threats.
“It’s a big question,” South Korea’s UN Ambassador Hwang Joonkook told reporters after an emergency closed meeting of the council on the North’s first ballistic missile test of 2024 on Sunday. South Korea is serving a two-year term on the council.
The Security Council imposed sanctions after North Korea’s first nuclear test explosion in 2006 and tightened them over the years in a total of 10 resolutions seeking — so far unsuccessfully — to cut funds and curb its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
The last sanctions resolution was adopted by the council in 2017. China and Russia vetoed a US-sponsored resolution in May 2022 that would have imposed new sanctions over a spate of intercontinental ballistic missile launches. Since then, the two veto-wielding permanent council members have blocked any council action, including media statements.
North Korea’s escalating test-launches in violation of the existing UN sanctions — five ICBMs, more than 25 ballistic missiles and three satellite launches using ballistic missile technology in 2023 – coupled with new threats from the North’s leader Kim Jong Un have raised regional tensions to their highest point in years.
On Monday, Kim declared North Korea would abandon its commitment to a peaceful unification with South Korea and ordered a rewriting of its constitution to eliminate the idea of a shared statehood between the war-divided countries. He said South Koreans were “top-class stooges” of America who were obsessed with confrontation, and repeated a threat that the North would annihilate the South with its nukes if provoked.
Before Thursday’s council meeting, US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood told reporters Kim’s provocations “are of great concern.”
He said the 15 council members need to be reminded that North Korea is violating sanctions and its obligations to the council, “and we have to insist that they adhere to those obligations, and for all Security Council members to enforce those resolutions.”
By contrast, China’s UN Ambassador Zhang Jun, whose country is a close ally of North Korea, called on all parties involved in the Korean Peninsula to stay calm and refrain from actions that would further raise tensions.
In a message clearly aimed at the United States and South Korea, Zhang expressed hope that while attention is mainly on North Korea, “other countries are also responsible to avoid further escalation.”
France’s UN Ambassador Nicolas De Riviere told reporters that North Korea’s actions are “getting worse and worse,” with regular ballistic missile launches, continuing uranium enrichment, and advancement of its nuclear program.
“Everyone is focused on missile launches, but I think the biggest threat is their nuclear program which continues to grow again and again,” De Riviere said.
And he called it “a shame” that Russia is violating Security Council resolutions by “buying military stuff that they use in Ukraine” from North Korea. “It’s really bad,” he said.
South Korea’s Hwang said all 15 members of the Council are worried that North Korea’s rhetoric and actions are “getting more and more serious.”
But how to break the council’s silence and inaction?
“We will discuss and think about it, and how to move forward,” he said. “It’s a big question.”
As for Kim’s abandonment of peaceful reunification, Hwang called it “a big change” in their rhetoric, actions and policy. “The nuclear policy is highly, highly alarming,” he said.
South Korea calls on divided UN council ‘to break the silence’ on North Korea’s tests and threats
https://arab.news/wmzv8
South Korea calls on divided UN council ‘to break the silence’ on North Korea’s tests and threats
- North Korea’s escalating test-launches in violation of the existing UN sanctions have raised regional tensions to their highest point in years
- China and Russia vetoed a US-sponsored resolution in May 2022 that would have imposed new sanctions over a spate of ICBM launches
Carney says Canada has no plans to pursue free trade agreement with China as Trump threatens tariffs
Carney says Canada has no plans to pursue free trade agreement with China as Trump threatens tariffs
TORONTO: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday his country has no intention of pursuing a free trade deal with China. He was responding to US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose a 100 percent tariff on goods imported from Canada if America’s northern neighbor went ahead with a trade deal with Beijing.
Carney said his recent agreement with China merely cuts tariffs on a few sectors that were recently hit with tariffs.
Trump claims otherwise, posting that “China is successfully and completely taking over the once Great Country of Canada. So sad to see it happen. I only hope they leave Ice Hockey alone! President DJT”
The prime minister said under the free trade agreement with the US and Mexico there are commitments not to pursue free trade agreements with nonmarket economies without prior notification.
“We have no intention of doing that with China or any other nonmarket economy,” Carney said. “What we have done with China is to rectify some issues that developed in the last couple of years.”
In 2024, Canada mirrored the United States by putting a 100 percent tariff on electric vehicles from Beijing and a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum. China had responded by imposing 100 percent import taxes on Canadian canola oil and meal and 25 percent on pork and seafood.
Breaking with the United States this month during a visit to China, Carney cut its 100 percent tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on those Canadian products.
Carney has said there would be an initial annual cap of 49,000 vehicles on Chinese EV exports coming into Canada at a tariff rate of 6.1 percent, growing to about 70,000 over five years. He noted there was no cap before 2024. He also has said the initial cap on Chinese EV imports was about 3 percent of the 1.8 million vehicles sold in Canada annually and that, in exchange, China is expected to begin investing in the Canadian auto industry within three years.
Trump posted a video Sunday in which the chief executive of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association warns there will be no Canadian auto industry without US access, while noting the Canadian market alone is too small to justify large scale manufacturing from China.
“A MUST WATCH. Canada is systematically destroying itself. The China deal is a disaster for them. Will go down as one of the worst deals, of any kind, in history. All their businesses are moving to the USA. I want to see Canada SURVIVE AND THRIVE! President DJT,” Trump posted on social media.
Trump’s post on Saturday said that if Carney “thinks he is going to make Canada a ‘Drop Off Port’ for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken.”
“We can’t let Canada become an opening that the Chinese pour their cheap goods into the U.S,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“We have a , but based off — based on that, which is going to be renegotiated this summer, and I’m not sure what Prime Minister Carney is doing here, other than trying to virtue-signal to his globalist friends at Davos.”
Trump’s threat came amid an escalating war of words with Carney as the Republican president’s push to acquire Greenland strained the NATO alliance.
Carney has emerged as a leader of a movement for countries to find ways to link up and counter the US under Trump. Speaking in Davos before Trump, Carney said, “Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu” and he warned about coercion by great powers — without mentioning Trump’s name. The prime minister received widespread praise and attention for his remarks, upstaging Trump at the World Economic Forum.
Trump’s push to acquire Greenland has come after he has repeatedly needled Canada over its sovereignty and suggested it also be absorbed into the United States as a 51st state. He posted an altered image on social media this week showing a map of the United States that included Canada, Venezuela, Greenland and Cuba as part of its territory.
