UN Condemns North Korea Rocket Launch

By Amwal Al Ghad English On Dec 13, 2012

The UN Security Council has condemned North Korea’s successful rocket launch, saying it violated a 2009 council resolution banning “any launch using ballistic missile technology”.

The UN’s most powerful body said in a brief statement after closed consultations on Wednesday that it will consider “an appropriate response”.

The council said that after the North’s failed launch in April it demanded that Pyongyang halt all launches.

Just before the meeting, the US and its European allies called for the Security Council to deliver a strong reaction to Wednesday’s launch.

But whether China, North Korea’s closest ally, will agree to new sanctions remained unclear.

Sanctions

The successful rocket launch is widely seen as a test that takes North Korea one step closer to being capable of sending a nuclear-tipped warhead as far as California.

North Korea officials say the rocket is meant to send a satellite into orbit to study crops and weather patterns, and Pyongyang maintains its right to develop a civilian space programme.

The Security Council has imposed two rounds of sanctions against the North, following each of its nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.

After North Korea’s failed rocket launch in April, the council unanimously approved a presidential statement in which it expressed “its determination to take action accordingly in the event of a further DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] launch or nuclear test”.

Council diplomats have speculated that existing sanctions could be widened to include financial measures and target additional companies and individuals in North Korea.

The council could also consider measures that would lead to more robust implementation of sanctions, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because discussions have been private.

Aljazeera

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Abused Protesters At Rally, HRW Says

Members of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood unlawfully detained and abused at least 49 anti- government protestors outside the Presidential Palace last week as security forces stood by, Human Rights Watch said.

The New York-based research and advocacy group called on Egypt’s public prosecutor to open an investigation into the incident, which it said was documented by numerous videos and eyewitness testimonies, in a report released today. It laid the blame on President Mohamed Mursi and his supporters.

“Instead of condemning illegal detentions and abuse right outside the presidential palace, President Mursi instead spoke out against the victims,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at HRW.

Clashes broke out at the palace on the night of Dec. 5 after Mursi supporters broke up a sit-in by several dozen protesters. Ten people were killed, mostly Muslim Brotherhood members, and more than 748 injured, HRW said, citing the Health Ministry. It was the most violent episode in three weeks of protests against Mursi’s Nov. 22 decree expanding his powers, and counter-rallies by the president’s supporters.

Mursi in a Dec. 6 speech referred to “confessions” of detained protestors as evidence they were “hired thugs.” Essam al-Erian, deputy secretary of the Brotherhood’s political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party, encouraged people on television and radio to go to the palace and separate “thugs” from “revolutionaries” to reveal “the third party,” a reference to a claim often repeated by government supporters that the protesters are paid.

Bloomberg