No to UN Security Council Sanctions against North Korea

The South Korean Netizens are conducting a on-line campaign under the title of "No to UN Security Council Sanctions against North Korea". KCTU union members are also participating in this campaign.

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No to UN Security Council Sanctions against North Korea

To : Peter Burian
Chairman of the UNSC Sanctions Committee(Ambassador of the Slovak Republic to the United Nations)


We, the Netizens are calling for the peaceful settlement of the North Korea's nuclear issues.

Recently tensions between the US and North Korea are likely to ease as North Korea agreed to resume six-party talks on 31 October. Upon hearing such news South Koreans were glad and relieved.

Nonetheless sanctions against North Korea are still in on-going process. At the same time North Korea is being regarded as a suspicious state as ever. However It is the US that we see with suspicion. It holds that sanctions against the North have nothing to do with the resumption of the six-pary talks leaving an apple of discord. Who can talk to one with a knife in one hand, and who can verify its intention to deal with the issues through dialogue? If one wants to talk, he should drop the knife and hold its counterpart's hand.. This is a basic principle that even a child may well know.

As majority of the people in the world acknowledged, the hostile policy of the US toward North Korea resulted in the North's nuclear test. The six-party talks can never be effective unless the US abandons its stubborn and dangerous policy on North Korea. Dialogue with sanctions means that the US has no intention to talk at all.

So do the UNSC sanctions against the North. The UNSC Sanctions Committee is supposed to collect specific sanction-plans from each member states until 13 Nov. If North Korea was being surveiled and controled, How could the North go to the dialogue table with comfort? Many countries are worried about the US-led sanctions against the North and also urging peaceful solutions. If the sanctions were to be proceeded as planed, it would be seen as the UN is reluctantly following the US policy. Subsequently the UN would be denounced for it conducts undemocratic behavior in the name of democracy.

Politics and culture of a sovereign state should be respected and have rights to be valued whether they are the US, Czech Republic, South Korea or a small African country. We know that it may be a basic spirit of the UN.

We strongly urge that you should fully review the UNSC sanctions against the North, hoping for the successful six-party talks. We also expect that you can find the solution based not on the fact that the North has carried out the test but on what has had the North conduct the nuclear test as long as North Korea asserted peaceful solution of the nuclear issues. We hope that the UNSC Resolution 1718 will be ineffective sooner or later.

Obviously we learned through the Iraqi War that pressure and sanctions led to nothing but the resistance and war.

We hope that you and the Committee will be on the frontline to support peaceful solutions in settling the North's nuclear issues.

Always wish you good luck.


November 2006
The Netizens of the Republic of Korea