UN Issues Non-Binding Piece of Paper Condemning North Korea

Oooh, they must be quaking in their boots. This AFP dispatch does all it can to build up Obama into some muscular figure even though it took "days of wrangling" just to put words onto paper for a completely meaningless and irrelevant gesture.

Embarrassingly futile is what this all is.

The White House said Monday the United Nations sent a "clear and united" message to North Korea over its rocket launch, despite days of wrangling needed to agree a non-binding statement.

Obama led global condemnation of the launch on April 5, calling for Pyongyang to be punished for breaking international law over the test, seen by Washington and its allies as a veiled test of a long-range missile.

Backed by the United States and Europe, Japan had pressed for a resolution carrying more weight, but veto-wielding China and Russia urged restraint to avoid harming prospects for six-party talks with North Korea.

But White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement that Obama was satisfied with the eventual outcome, after all 15 members of the Security Council endorsed a compromise text earlier Monday.

A clear and united message of compromise for a meaningless resolution.

Pathetic.

Even more harshly, the UN vowed to enforce previously imposed sanctions, which apparently were never enforced to begin with.

The United Nations Security Council vowed to enforce previously imposed sanctions against North Korea as part of a condemnation of Kim Jong Il’s regime for its April 5 rocket test.

The 15-nation panel unanimously adopted a statement yesterday that said the launch was in “contravention” of a 2006 resolution barring North Korea’s development of missile technology. The statement demands that no further launches be conducted.

A lot of good that did.