Talk about stepping on message.This was supposed to be the week that we contemplated a world without nuclear weapons.
At least that was what U.S. President Barack Obama aimed for when he chose a public square in Prague, Czech Republic, for a Palm Sunday speech pledging to that his "administration will immediately and aggressively pursue U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty," "will negotiate a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with the Russians this year," "will strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a basis for cooperation," and will work with allies toward an eventual and total nuclear disarmament.
Kim Jong-il had other ideas.
In the wee hours before Obama was to deliver his speech, the North Korean leader ordered the firing of a rocket that he maintains is a communications satellite, but that much of the rest of the world assumes was a test-run of technology for transport of a nuclear missile.
How did the world respond?
The United States and the European Union condemned the launch.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, formerly a diplomat for South Korea, expressed "regrets."
The U.N. Security Council did manage an emergency session yesterday afternoon. But it failed to reach agreement for the usual reason: a couple of the P-5 members that wield veto power, in this case China and Russia, balked at passing a resolution against the state in question.
By day's end, the North Korean launch attempt seemed a failure.
So too yet another effort at global collective security.
Dreams of a no-nukes world?
Again deferred.
(* In recognition, this National Poetry Month, of the 1951 poem by Langston Hughes.)
