The
world has had enough of Nikki Haley’s abuse of the United Nations.
by ADAM
GARRIE
December
1, 2017, 23:04
Donald
Trump’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, has long been criticised
for having no foreign policy experience or expertise. Her position as US
Ambassador to the UN is the first time in her life where she has dealt with
foreign policy matters.
By
contrast, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is among the most experienced
and intelligent diplomats in recent history.
When
it comes to Nikki Haley, Sergey Lavrov’s patience has clearly run out. During
her recent remarks before the UN Security Council, Haley once again threatened
to destroy North Korea. This comes after Trump himself threatened to do so in
front of the UN General Assembly where he also refereed to the North Korea
leader as “rocket man”.
Speaking
in Italy, Lavrov has called Haley’s speech “a really bloodthirsty
tirade”. Lavrov has previously questioned whether the US actually wants to
provoke a conflict which would give Washington the chance to try and destroy
North Korea.
Lavrov
continued,
“If
someone really wants to use force to – as the US representative to the UN put
it – destroy North Korea… then I think it’s playing with fire and a huge
mistake.
We
will do everything to ensure that it [military conflict] doesn’t happen and
that the problem is solved using exclusively peaceful and political-diplomatic
means.
Unfortunately,
in the last couple of months there has been an impression that there are people
in Washington who are trying to provoke Pyongyang to make new reckless moves at
any cost,” the minister said. “In October, they announced large-scale
unscheduled exercises [between US and South Korean forces], new drills are also
announced in December – although in the regular context they shouldn’t have
been conducted until spring”.
Lavrov
contrasted Haley’s well known hysteria with Russia’s “direct, honest and open”
approach to the Korean peninsula.
He
further stated,
“We
see the main task in preventing an armed conflict, which will have disastrous
consequences, first of all, for the countries that are located in the region –
South Korea and Japan, but let’s not forget that China and Russia also
practically bordering North Korea”.
As
I wrote previously in The Duran,
“During
debates over whether the US will ever be willing to approach North Korea and
request a good faith dialogue to calm tensions in the region, one cannot help
but think there is a certain useless quality to such questions. How can the US
be ready for dialogue with another country when the US appears not even to
fully listen to what North Korea says very clearly in public? Forgetting North
Korea, when the US doesn’t even listen to North Korea’s neighbours China and
Russia, one must come to terms with the impossibility of the US as a good faith
dialogue partner.
North
Korea’s position vis-a-vis its contemporary weapons programme has always been
clear. One needn’t be a spy or have secret drones flying over Pyongyang to
ascertain this. One only needs to use the internet to read official statements
from the DPRK and listen to what its diplomats say at places like the UN.
North
Korea’s current position can be easily defined as follows:
The DPRK will not negotiate
the state of its weapons programme until such a time that the DPRK achieves
nuclear parity with the United States.
In
this context, parity does not mean the same number of nuclear bombs and nuclear
warhead capable missiles as the United States. It would take decades for North
Korea to reach such a parity. Instead, North Korea seeks to achieve the ability
to deliver a nuclear weapon to US soil, just as the US can do the same in
respect of North Korea (and the rest of the world).
North
Korea’s latest missile test which saw the launch of the Hwasong-15 ICBM, is,
according to North Korea itself, the crowing achievement of this parity. Unlike
previous missiles launched by the DPRK which were medium range, the Hwasong-15
is almost certainly a fully-fledged ICBM. According to North Korea, it is
capable of delivering a nuclear payload without breaking up upon re-entering
earth’s atmosphere. There is of course only one way to know if this is entirely
true and that would be if North Korea launched a nuclear weapon using the
missile. Thus, such a question is not meaningful as the only way to find out of
North Korea is bluffing is by running the risk of what is statistically known
as a megadeath.
While
North Korea’s previous missile launches were called ICBM launches by
Washington, Russia had been quick to point out that they were in fact medium
range missiles. This time, the global consensus is that the new missile is the
real deal. No one thus far has challenged any of North Korea’s scientific
claims in respect of the Hwasong-15. By contrast, many in the weapons watching
community are amazed that North Korea was able to achieve such a feat in such a
short period of time and without any meaningful outside help.
If
one accepts that North Korea has then reached nuclear parity with the US, the
next logical question ought to be, is North Korea bluffing in respect of having
a willingness to enter discussions with outside powers now that parity has been
reached?
The
answer which has come from the only major power to have anything approximating
healthy relations with North Korea is that North Korea is ready, if the nature
of the discussions does not seek to threaten the DPRK’s own security concerns.
Russia
has recently sent a delegation to North Korea as part of a highly
under-reported diplomatic initiative by Moscow to reach a respectful
understanding with North Korea about the current situation in the region. At
the same time, Moscow is developing ever closer ties with South Korea. With
relations between Seoul and Moscow at an historic high, it would be completely
wrong to say that Russia is playing favourites between the Korean states as one
could have said during the Cold War.
According to Alexei Chepa who formed part of the
Russian delegation to Pyongyang,
“They
(North Korea) expect that the Hwasong-15 ICBM will put them on par with the US
and guarantee them peace. This is their position: they wanted to demonstrate
what they are capable of.
After
this launch, North Korea will probably be ready to talk on new conditions”.
Other
members of the delegation stressed that at this time, the existance of North
Korea’s weapons programme is non-negotiable but that if talks begin now, the
DPRK will be willing to entertain long-term de-escalation plans if its security
concerns are met by all major regional and global powers. Because Russia
accepts North Korea’s totally legitimate security concerns, Russia is a natural
mediator of such would-be negotiations. This is especially true as relations
between North Korea and China have plummeted in recent years, for reasons that
were initially unrelated to Pyongyang’s weapons programme. The governments of
Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un simply do not see eye to eye. Russia, as a closer
partner of China, is however in the position to help reduce this tension and
unlike the US, China would readily welcome such a thaw.
Kazbek
Taisayev, the head of Russia’s legislative delegation who regularly corresponds
with his North Korea counterparts has said,
“We
discussed this initiative of ours… They are ready for a dialogue,” he said.
“They are ready for talks. But they obviously mistrust everyone, except for
Russia. My impression is that only Russia could act as a guarantor in such
talks… They deem the US impossible to negotiate with”.
Vitaly
Pashin who also formed part of the Russian delegation to the DPRK stated,
“We
suggest a road map, so that in the future, not now, North Korea could give up
on its nuclear program. We have discussed this issue with our colleagues, but
they replied by saying that ‘we will never give up on the nuclear program amid
the current situation’.
They
say, we [North Korea] have launched a ballistic missile… intentionally to be
sure that we are safe”.
As
the Russian President himself stated publicly, following from the precedent of
the US attacking Libya and Iraq, countries which did not have a nuclear
deterrent, it is only natural for North Korea to want what amounts to a
geo-political insurance policy.
Russia
is aware that South Korea, Japan and even China are either worried or irritated
by North Korea’s nuclear weapons, while also being aware that North Korea is
frightened that if left defenceless, the US could do to it, what the US did
during the Korean War. During that war, Pyongyang was entirely destroyed and
600,000 North Koreans were killed. As this happened in the lifetime of many
older citizens of the DPRK, it really is not surprising that Pyongyang seeks to
arm itself at a time when the US threatens to “destroy” North Korea a second
time, as both Donald Trump and his UN Ambassador Nikki Haley have threatened
many times.
By
entering into negotiations without preconditions, Russia and both Korean states
could eventually reach an accord, one that would likely be in line with the
tripartite economic cooperation proposals which Vladimir Putin introduced in
September of this year.
At
the time, South Korea said they are ready to discuss such plans now and North
Korea said they will be ready in the future.
Now
that North Korea has achieved its much coveted nuclear parity, the time for
such discussions to being will be soon according to Russia. This is of course
entirely consistent with North Korea’s public statements.
Of
the many differences between the US and Russia, one key difference is that
while Russia listens to every country on earth, including the United States,
the United States appears only to listen to itself. Is it any wonder that such
a country is seen as a poor negotiating partner? Just ask Iran who agreed to
de-escalate its own weapons programme, only to be continually threatened by the
US and its Israeli partner, a country whose own illegal nuclear weapons are
hardly ever discussed, even though it has been at war with every single one of
its neighbours and continues to occupy both Syria and Palestine”.
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