One of the most perilous situations of the past year was the conflict on the Korean Peninsula that was brought to the UN Security Council in what was the last week of its 2010 session.(1)

On Saturday December 18, Vitaly Churkin, the Russian Federation Ambassador to the UN, requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to be held on Saturday.

In what Ambassador Churkin called “a departure from the practice of the Council”, the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, as President of the Security Council for the month of December, declined to hold a meeting until the following day. (2) Instead she scheduled consultations to start at 11 a.m. on Sunday, December 19, with a view to the possibility of holding a formal meeting later in the day.

On Sunday, 50 or more journalists gathered at the stakeout outside the UN Security Council. Ambassadors and… weiter lesen

At the UN, the British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, who holds the presidency of the Security Council for the month of November, told journalists that he was having consultations among Security Council members on Korea and the consultations would continue. It was Wednesday afternoon at the stakeout at the UN Security Council. It was the day before the American celebration of Thanksgiving. The Security Council had met for consultations on another matter, but a number of journalists came to the stakeout to hear if the Security Council had any plans about what it would do about the increased hostilities on the Korean peninsula. The British Ambassador didn’t take any questions from journalists so there was little communication about what was being planned at the Security Council.

Ban Ki-moon’s Response

Just a few hours after the hostilities had erupted between the two Koreas on November 23, UN Secretary General Ban ki-moon… weiter lesen