At the UN security council last Wednesday, China blocked the United States from broadcasting an informal video about the state of human rights in North Korea. The video was made in an attempt to inform the security council of the huge amounts of human rights violations that North Korea has, and will continue to commit if nothing is changed. The meeting, which will be held on friday, is set to surround issues in North Korea, following a highly tense year concerning North Korea and the rest of the world. Russia and China have opposed the discussion of North Korea’s domestic affairs for a long time, avoiding topics such as human rights and claimign that they “don’t believe the council-charged with maintaining peace and international security- should be discussing human rights in North Korea.
China and Russia’s response to this makes sense– if they were on board with exposing and fixing North Korea’s human rights abuses, I think it would be more obnoxious, considering neither of them have figured out how to have an economically successful country while also respecting the rights of their people. North Korea. China claims that discussing human rights abuses in in North Korea wont bring any benefit, but to me it just seems like they’re avoiding talking about human rights with other countries so that the topic can’t get switched to them. Why all 15 members would have to agree to watching an informational video doesn’t make sense to me– why make all the countries have to agree on something and then add volatile countries like China who seem to avoid cooperation.
This relates to what we’re currently learning because it focuses on internal functioning on the United Nations.