World View: U.N. Promises 'Response' to North Korea Firing Midrange Missiles

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• New car bombing in Lebanon continues sectarian strife
• U.N. promises ‘response’ to North Korea firing midrange missiles
• Crimean Tatars vote to push for self-rule

New car bombing in Lebanon continues sectarian strife

A suicide bomber on Saturday evening drove his black Kia automobile,laden with explosives, to an army checkpoint in Arsal, a Lebanon townon the border with Syria, and detonated the explosives, killing threesoldiers and four others. A Sunni jihadist terrorist group, FreeSunnis of Baalbek Battalion, claimed responsibility for the bombing.The group first became known in December when it took responsibilityfor the assassination of a senior commander of the Iran-fundedHezbollah militant group outside his home.

The string of terrorist attacks in Lebanon was triggered by atelevised announcement, last April 30 by Hezbollah leader Sayyed HasanNasrallah, saying that Hezbollah would militarily enter the fight inSyria on the side of the regime of Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad.Al-Assad is conducting “industrial strength” torture and exterminationon his own civilians, particularly targeting innocent Sunni women andchildren, which has enraged Sunnis throughout the Mideast.Hezbollah’s support for al-Assad has caused the sectarian war in Syriato spill over into Lebanon. Daily Star (Lebanon) and LA Times

U.N. promises ‘response’ to North Korea firing midrange missiles

The United Nations Security Council has threatened a quickmedium-range Rodong ballistic missiles into the sea earlier this week.According to the Security Council president:

“Members of the Security Council condemned this launchas a violation of Security Council resolution(s). Council membersagreed to consult on an appropriate response.

There was unanimous condemnation of the launches. … We also allagreed that this response should be given quickly.”

The firings raised concerns, because these are the first missilesthat North Korea would use to launch an attack on either SouthKorea or Japan.

No clue was provided for what an “appropriate response” might be.However, it’s thought that the only country in a position to provideany response at all is China, and China has been consistentlyunwilling in the past to consider any response at all to the NorthKoreans.

The North Koreans fired the missiles on March 26. It was on March 26,2010, just four years ago, that the North Koreans launched a torpedoat a South Korean warship, the Cheonan, sinking it and killing 46people. (See “27-Mar-11 News — South Korea commemorates Cheonan warship attack, while North starves”.) After this incident, China refused to condemn oreven criticize the North Koreans. Reuters

Crimean Tatars vote to push for self-rule

A congress of Crimea’s 300,000 strong Tatar community met on Saturdayand voted to push for autonomy from Russia, but remained dividedon how best to achieve that goal.

Crimea is the historic homeland of the Tatars. In 1944, Russia’sdictator Josef Stalin deported 200,000 Tatars from Crimea to centralAsia, accusing them of collaborating with the Nazis. It was only inthe 1980s and 1990s that the Tatars returned in large numbers toCrimea, particularly after the collapse of the Soviet Union andUkraine’s independence. The Tatars are scared to death of being underthe control of the Russians again, and they’re particularly concernedabout Moscow’s frequent reference to “Nazis” in Kiev, which they seeas a possible signal that they’re going to be accused of rom newcollaboration again.

On Saturday, the congress adopted a resolution entitled “On theCrimean Tatar people’s right to self-determination on their historicalterritory in Crimea.” According to the chairman,

“By adopting this document, we inform all parties ofthe beginning of political and legal procedures for setting up anational autonomous territory of the Crimean Tatar people on theirhistorical territory in Crimea.”

This was adopted after hours of sometimes angry debate, with noconclusions reached whether to seek an autonomous entity in Ukraine orin Crimea, which is now part of Russia. AFP and Interfax-Ukraine

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