Without Bolton, What Happens With UN Sanctions on North Korea?

Claudia Rosett

October 15, 2006 4:20 AM

UN sanctions are only as useful as the will of the feckless UN to enforce anything — and the usual practice at the UN is to prevaricate and cheat. Previous U.S. ambassadors to the UN, such as Richard Holbrooke and John Negroponte, have had a dismal record of calling the UN to account on such stuff — remember Oil-for-Food. John Bolton has managed the amazing art of getting resolutions passed while still– as far as possible for anyone working for the State Department — telling it like it is. With John Bolton soon to be gone, what’s the value of UN sanctions on North Korea?

For media inquiries, please contact [email protected] Claudia Rosett is widely recognized as a ground-breaking reporter on corruption at the United Nations. Her investigative reporting skills, drawn from three decades as a journalist covering international affairs, led her to expose the U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal, the worst financial fraud in the history of humanitarian relief. Ms. Rosett worked from 1984-2002 as a staff editorialist, editor and reporter at The Wall Street Journal, and has appeared before six U.S. House and Senate Committees and Subcommittees to testify on subjects including U.N.-related corruption and the Iran-North Korea strategic alliance. Her work on Oil-for-Food earned Claudia the 2005 Eric Breindel Award and the Mightier Pen award, and for her on-site coverage of China's Tiananmen Square in 1989, she won an Overseas Press Club Citation for Excellence. She is a Foreign Policy Fellow with the Independent Women's Forum, and writes a column on foreign affairs for Forbes.com.