UN Report: October 2006

by Sayre Sheldon, WAND representative on the NGO Working Group for Women, Peace and Security

This has been a big month for the U.N. Along with its usual business, it is dealing with the choice of a new secretary-general to replace retiring Kofi Annan and the crisis resulting from North Korea’s test of a nuclear weapon. The two are linked because the new secretary general Ban Ki-moon is from South Korea and will now have to lead U.N. efforts to prevent North Korea from continuing its nuclear program. Of all the world’s countries, South Korea is perhaps most threatened by the actions of its neighbor.

Mr. Ban has a good reputation for hard work and diplomacy but many of those inside the U.N. were hoping for a more dynamic candidate in the style of Kofi Annan. He has the strong support of the U.S., however, without which he would not have been chosen.

The U.S. seems to be working hard to get Security Council approval for sanctions against North Korea. It is striking that after so much criticism of the U.N., Bush and Bolton are showing that they need the U.N. now that we are too tied down in Iraq to take any unilateral actions against North Korea.

Of course WAND members know that the U.S. has another massive problem: we have not reined in our own nuclear weapons program or abided by the U.N. non-proliferation treaty and we continue to hold the threat of our weapons over countries that we don’t think should have them. There was absolutely no surprise over what North Korea has done but they have made the world a much more dangerous place and challenged the international community to make crucial choices.