WSJ "UN Security Council Useless... North Korea's Nuclear and Missile Provocations Thanks to China and Russia"

[Photo by EPA Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] The influential American daily The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 26th (local time) blamed China and Russia collectively, stating that North Korea's nuclear and missile provocations are possible thanks to China and Russia.

In a column titled "North Korea's U.N. Protectors," WSJ pointed out that China and Russia blocked official actions by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in response to North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch on the 21st, stating, "It has been proven these days that the Security Council is pretty much useless."

WSJ criticized the Security Council for adopting nine sanction resolutions related to North Korea's nuclear tests from 2006 to 2017, but now, due to obstruction by China and Russia, it cannot even issue verbal condemnations. It condemned China and Russia's behavior of not supporting even a presidential statement or press statement in response to North Korea's ICBM provocations, let alone additional sanction resolutions.

A few days before the Security Council meeting, U.S. President Joe Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and pressured him to stop North Korea's nuclear tests and missile trials, calling it "hopeful," but WSJ assessed that the outcome does not seem to be so.

WSJ also introduced a statement from Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of North Korean State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un and vice department director of the Workers' Party, on the 24th, saying, "The more the U.S. and South Korean lackeys desperately cling to sanction pressure against us, the greater our hostility and anger will become, and that will become a noose tightening their throats."

WSJ quoted Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, saying, "China and Russia enable Kim Jong-un's nuclear provocations," and "Their protection has emboldened Chairman Kim." It analyzed that North Korea appears to be boasting long-range missiles capable of striking the U.S. mainland with the intention of instilling fear about America's defense commitments in South Korea and Japan.

WSJ stated, "The United Nations is proving to be useless as a guardian of the world order," and advised, "It is now time for the United States to withdraw its faith in the U.N. and focus on working through allies who have freedom and will."