“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer”. – Sun-Tzu Chinese general and Military strategist -400 BC
This adage may be a key precept of intelligent international diplomacy. Nonetheless, last Saturday the UN Security Council decided to do the exact opposite.
After North Korea revealed that it had conducted nuclear tests on Oct. 9, there was an immediate and intense reaction over what much of the international community deemed a flagrant violation of regulations against such tests.
As a result, the UN Security Council voted unanimously in favour of a resolution which was drawn-up by the United States. It would ban international travel from North Korea and would freeze all assets of people involved in North Korea’s weapons programs. Predictably, it would also ban sales or exchanges of equipment or material that could be used to make chemical, biological or nuclear weapons and ballistic missile delivery systems. Additionally, the resolution would allow for countries to inspect all cargo going to and from North Korea, preventing the trade of banned weapons. These inspections began Monday, and if the resolution is carried out to its fullest extent, the sanctions would be the toughest North Korea has seen since the Korean War ended.
In many ways, these events seem like d