The U.N. Sideshow on Korea 
July 10, 2006
The New York Times
Original Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/10/opinion/10mon1.html?_r=2&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
The United Nations Security Council certainly should register international condemnation of last week's North Korean missile launches. But if any serious progress is going to be made on this and the related North Korean nuclear issue, it will not be through Security Council resolutions or sanctions. 
There are only three countries with any real leverage — the United States, China and South Korea — and none are doing all they could to nudge North Korea onto a less provocative course. Until they do, Security Council resolutions will remain a largely symbolic sideshow.
Last week's missile launches instantly complicated the security picture in Northeast Asia, but they violated no international law or treaty that would clearly justify mandatory penalties from the Security Council. (India tested a long-range nuclear-capable missile just yesterday.) Individual nations, particularly the three most influential ones, would do better to devise short-term penalties and longer-term incentives to persuade North Korea to forswear nuclear weapons and longer-range missiles.
The Bush administration should drop its reflexive opposition to direct talks. But before scheduling a meeting, Washington should call on North Korea to reinstate its moratorium on long-range missile tests and keep it in place for at least one year while talks on a permanent ban proceed. 
Those direct talks should also include discussions on North Korea's nuclear weapons programs. Nearly a year ago, North Korea agreed in principle to give these up as part of an agreement with the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea. Crucial details were never worked out because North Korea left the talks over unrelated banking sanctions the Bush administration announced last fall. Washington has refused to conduct direct negotiations on the banking sanctions.
Even if this gratuitous obstacle were removed, completing the nuclear talks would be difficult because North Korea wants civilian power reactors before it completes nuclear disarmament. Given North Korea's record of diverting nuclear material from civilian to military programs, it should have to demonstrate compliance with nonproliferation rules before building power reactors.
Pressure from China and South Korea may be required to get North Korea to agree to acceptable terms, and both countries should be signaling their willingness to apply such pressure by imposing short-term penalties for the missile tests. For China, the most effective signal would be a short-term suspension of oil shipments. South Korea could cancel this week's scheduled cabinet-level talks.
The most urgent objective for all three nations should be to convince North Korea to not test its long-range missile again. Preparations for a test are reported under way. The next goal should be to jump-start talks aimed at permanently ending North Korea's long-range missile and nuclear weapons programs.