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KCNA on Lesson Drawn from Situation in Iraq

Korean Central News Agency of DPRK

    Pyongyang, March 18 (KCNA) -- One year has passed since the United States provoked a war of aggression against Iraq. On March 20 last year the U.S. started invasion against Iraq, a member state of the United Nations and a sovereign state, under the pretext of "eliminating weapons of mass destruction (WMD)" and committed mass destruction and genocide, toppling its legitimate government.
    What should not be overlooked is that before the start of the U.S. aggression against Iraq an inspection of Iraq was made for its complete disarmament through the UN Security Council but the U.S. launched the war defying the UNSC.
    It is well known that the UNSC had been deeply involved in the operation to disarm the country for more than a decade, after drawing a conclusion on the basis of the U.S.-provided information that WMD in Iraq was a threat to global peace and security.
    The UNSC adopted a resolution No. 687 on April 3, 1991 and passed several other resolutions through it, sending a big UN weapons inspection group to Iraq.
    For seven years of its inspection of Iraq the group destroyed all elements suspected to be used for the development of WMD and scoured even presidential palace but failed to confirm the U.S.-provided information.
    The inspection resulted in the dismantlement of 90 percent of its weapons and the country lost the capability to wage a war. When the world public became skeptical about the U.S. cooked-up information, it spread new misinformation about Iraq's "purchase of uranium" and "possession of chemical weapons" and made much ado about "the imminent threat from Iraq," providing even "information gathered by spy satellites" to the UNSC.
    After receiving again the information as it was, the UNSC adopted resolution No. 1441 on November 8, 2002, allowing the group to resume the inspection of Iraq after the lapse of four years but it failed to discover any traces of WMD.
    Though the group confirmed the fact that Iraq did not have access to such weapons, the U.S. absurdly asserted that the efforts to disarm Iraq according to UNSC resolution No. 1441 failed. It submitted a draft resolution calling for taking a military action to the UNSC, thus barring the international community from conducting any activities to seek a political and diplomatic solution to the Iraqi issue.
    As the draft resolution calling for undisguised aggression of a sovereign state sparked a hot controversy among international community and it was consequently turned down by the UNSC, U.S. President Bush finally gave an order to invade Iraq, blustering that carriage or non-carriage of the draft resolution at the UNSC was not important and the U.S. would launch attack even defying the UNSC. This completely paralyzed its function.
    The UNSC whose basic mission is to preserve international peace and security not only failed to check the U.S. aggression but allowed itself to be used in justifying the U.S.-pursued aim to completely disarm Iraq through inspection.
    The UNSC is thus known to be incapable of doing anything against the arbitrary practice of the world's only superpower. The U.S. goal has become clear now when one year has passed since its start of the war of aggression against Iraq.
    It seeks to seize with ease Iraq completely disarmed by the UNSC under the pretext of "eliminating WMD" and, furthermore, put under complete control the Mideast region which holds 65 percent of the world oil deposit.
    What happened in Iraq teaches a serious lesson that if the UN and the international community allow the U.S. high-handed and arbitrary practices, the UN Charter, the foundation of international law, will become invalid and global peace and security are bound to be seriously disturbed and accepting unreasonable inspection aimed at disarmament will not help avert a war but lead to it.
    It is necessary for the UN member states to seriously look back from an objective viewpoint on how the UNSC handled the Iraqi issue over the last 10-odd years.