• North Korea pledges to boost nuclear capability after UN rebuke

    By Ed Flanagan, Producer, NBC News

    North Korea vowed to boost its nuclear capabilities on Wednesday after the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed a resolution condemning its controversial rocket launch last December.

    “The present situation clearly proves that (North Korea) should counter the U.S. hostile policy with strength, not with words,” the country’s foreign ministry warned in a statement.

    North Korea pledged in the statement to bolster its military capabilities and to build up what it called a “nuclear deterrence." 

    It also defended its “independent and legitimate right” to launch satellites and condemned the U.N. resolution as a “wanton violation of the inviolable sovereignty of (North Korea).”

    The U.N. resolution passed on Tuesday called on North Korea to abandon its nuclear program and cease rocket launches, and came a month after the country, officially known as Democratic People's Republic of Korea, successfully conducted a rocket launch that put a satellite into orbit.

    Pyongyang maintains that the test was purely “for peaceful purposes.”

    U.S. officials disagree, saying the test was the latest attempt to develop multistage ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

    Washington hopes the newest U.N. resolution will help bind world opinion against North Korea’s opaque nuclear program.

    "This resolution demonstrates to North Korea that there are unanimous and significant consequences for its flagrant violation of its obligations under previous resolutions," American ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, told reporters after the vote.

    China’s unusual support for the resolution, the first in four years to expand sanctions against North Korea, suggests Beijing’s patience with its troublesome neighbor may be fraying. 

    But in comments made after the vote, Li Baodong, China's ambassador to the U.N., warned sanctions alone would not resolve the impasse.

    “The policy of the sanction does not work,” he said. “The resolution must be accompanied, supplemented by diplomatic efforts.”

    The new sanctions were categorized under the scope of existing ones, which were expanded to include North Korean government agencies -- most notably the North Korean Space Agency -- and companies.

    In addition, a list of nuclear and ballistic missile technology banned for export to North Korea has been updated.

    Despite the resolution and international concerns about North Korea’s nuclear program, leading North Korea expert Wang Junsheng said it was unlikely that Pyongyang would conduct a nuclear test anytime soon.

    “(North Korea) uses nuclear tests to negotiate with foreign countries but mainly to establish the Kim family's stature within the country,” he said, referring to the country’s ruling family.

    “By successfully launching the satellite last month, there is no need for Kim Jong Un to conduct a nuclear test at this time,” he said. 

    Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s supreme leader, is the son of Kim Jong Il and grandson of Kim Il Sung, who founded the communist state.

    NBC News' Li Le contributed to this report.

    Related:

    North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offers olive branch to South in rare address

    North Korea missiles could reach US, says South

    Video: South Korea finds debris from North's rocket 

  • Rights group blasts Rwanda winning seat on UN Security Council

    By Reuters

    UNITED NATIONS - Rwanda - along with Australia, Argentina, Luxembourg and South Korea - won a seat on the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, despite accusations by a U.N. panel that Rwanda's defense minister commands a rebellion in Democratic Republic of Congo.


    Rwanda was unopposed in its bid for the African seat on the council that South Africa will vacate at the end of December, but still needed approval from two-thirds of the U.N. General Assembly members present to secure the two-year term. It won 148 votes in the 193-nation assembly.

    Argentina also was elected to the council unopposed, winning 182 votes. Australia won a seat with 140 votes, Luxembourg with 131 votes and South Korea with 149.

    Cambodia, Bhutan and Finland failed to secure two-year seats on the council.

    There are five veto-holding permanent members of the council - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - and 10 temporary members without veto power. Thursday's election was for the term from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2014.

    Rwanda's government said that it would work with all members of the council to ensure "it is responsive and reflective of the views & aspirations of the developing world."

    "Rwanda's troubling and tragic past allows it to bring to the UNSC a unique perspective on matters of war and peace," it posted on a Twitter account created for its Security Council term (@RwandaUNSC).

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    Before the vote, the Congolese delegation told the General Assembly it objected to Rwanda joining the Security Council, accusing its neighbor of harboring "war criminals operating in the eastern part of the DRC and who are being sought by international justice." 

    A confidential U.N. report, seen by Reuters on Tuesday, cast a shadow over Rwanda's election to the 15-member U.N. power center - which has the ability to impose sanctions and authorize military interventions.

    Support for rebels
    The Security Council's "Group of Experts" said that Rwanda and Uganda - despite their strong denials - continued to support M23 rebels in their six-month fight against Congolese government troops in the east of the country. 

    Rwandan President Paul Kagame posted a declaration on Twitter welcoming the result: "No matter what haters say ... justice&truth will prevail!!! Sometimes it just requires a bit of good fight for all that...!!!" 

    Speaking to reporters in New York, Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo complained about the timing of the leak of the experts report to Reuters two days ahead of the Security Council vote, but added that the leak was "predictable."

    She also sought to assure Congo that Rwanda would be a responsible council member. "I believe the Democratic Republic of Congo should see Rwanda on the Security Council as value addition," she said after the vote.

    Philippe Bolopion of the advocacy group Human Rights Watch criticized the inclusion of Rwanda on the Security Council

    "After blatantly violating the Security Council's arms embargo and undermining the work of the U.N. by propping up the abusive M23 rebels, Rwanda is rewarded with a seat at the table," he said.

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    "Kigali is now in a position to try to shield its own officials implicated in abuses from U.N. sanctions, which is a flagrant conflict of interest," Bolopion said in a statement. "Other Security Council members now have an even greater responsibility to hold Rwanda to account." 

    Britain's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Philip Parham put a more positive spin on Rwanda's election, saying: "We look forward to working with them on issues of international peace and security including the efforts to try to end the cycle of violence in the eastern DRC."

    Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr described Australia's election as a "big juicy, decisive win" that endorsed the country as a good global citizen.

    Heavy rains exacerbate Congo crisis

    "For us as a middle power a long way from the centers of clout in the world, the centers of power in the world, this is a lovely moment," Carr told reporters after the vote.

    South Africa, Colombia, Germany, India and Portugal are leaving the Security Council in December. Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Pakistan, Togo and Morocco will remain until the end of 2013.

    The last time Rwanda was on the council was in 1994-95. That coincided with a genocide in which 800,000 people were killed when Rwanda's Hutu-led government and ethnic militias went on a 100-day killing spree, massacring Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

    The Congolese government on Wednesday demanded targeted sanctions against Rwandan and Ugandan officials named in the U.N. experts report.

    According to the U.N. experts, who monitor compliance with sanctions and an arms embargo on the Congo, Rwandan Defense Minister General James Kabarebe was ultimately commanding the rebellion and both Rwanda and Uganda were providing weapons, troops and military and political aid to the insurgency.

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  • UN extends Syria observer mission as fighting continues

    The Syrian intelligence chief has died from wounds suffered in a bomb attack Wednesday in Damascus. Funerals were held for three other members of president Assad's inner circle who were killed in the blast. Lindsey Hilsum, Channel Four Europe reports.

    By NBC News staff and wire services

    The U.N. Security Council voted Friday to maintain its observer mission in Syria for a "final" 30 days, the BBC reported.


    The vote came after hours of negotiations among the members, the report said. Russia initially threatened to veto the resolution.

    The Security Council's decision comes as fighting is engulfing areas of Damascus. Thousands of Syrian refugees are pouring into neighboring countries, the BBC reported.

    Following the vote, Britain's UN ambassador, Mark Lyall Grant, said: "We have said clearly that it is a final extension unless there is a change in the dynamic on the ground, and in particular that there should be a cessation of use of heavy weapons and that there should be a sufficient reduction in the violence to enable UNSMIS [the observer mission] to carry out its mandate."

    On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned against Western powers taking action against Syria beyond the Security Council's authority.

    According to the BBC, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "In the opinion of the Russian president, any attempts to act outside the UN Security Council will be ineffective and only undermine the authority of this international organization."

    Syrian troops fought on the corpse-strewn streets of the capital and at far-flung border posts on Friday to reverse gains by rebels, who have advanced relentlessly in the 48 hours since several members of President Bashar Assad's closest circle were assassinated.

    Russia will be big loser if Assad falls, analysts say

    Assad's intelligence chief on Friday became the fourth member of that circle to die of wounds sustained in Wednesday's bomb attack, which has transformed the 16-month conflict.

    Since then, rebels have pushed deep into the heart of the capital and seized control of other towns. On Thursday, they captured three border crossings with Iraq and Turkey, the first time they have held sway over Syria's frontiers.

    Assad has not spoken in public since Wednesday.

    The next few days may be critical in determining whether Assad's government can recover from the bombing, which wiped out much of his command structure and destroyed his clan's aura of invulnerability.

    Regional and world powers are now bracing for the last phase of the conflict, hoping to lever Assad out of power without unleashing a sectarian war that could spill across borders in one of the most volatile parts of the world.

    A Western diplomat said it was understood that the Syrian leader had phoned the head of a U.N. observer mission after Wednesday's blast, saying he would accept an international peace plan if the West forced the opposition to halt attacks. The mission head, General Robert Mood, was not available to comment.

    Diplomacy has failed to keep pace with events. A day after Moscow and Beijing vetoed a U.N. resolution that would have allowed sanctions, the Security Council approved a 30-day extension of Mood's small, unarmed mission, the only outside military presence on the ground.

    In at least one apparent success for Assad's forces, state television said troops had cleared the central Damascus district of Midan of "mercenaries and terrorists." It aired footage of dead men in T-shirts, some covered in blood, others burned.

    Opposition activists and rebel sources confirmed Friday that they had withdrawn from that district after coming under heavy bombardment, but said they were advancing elsewhere.

    "It is a tactical withdrawal. We are still in Damascus," Abu Omar, a rebel commander, said by telephone.

    One resident of a Palestinian refugee camp in the south of the city said the area nearby had a stench of corpses.

    He said: "Tens of cars are burned, I saw at least eight bodies in the streets and people are trying to cover them with blankets."

    Assad's forces also tried to recapture the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Syria and shelled the Abu Kamal crossing with Iraq on the Euphrates River highway, among the most important trade routes in the Middle East. The rebels said they still held the crossings, which they captured on Thursday.

    A Reuters photographer at the scene said Iraqi forces had sealed off their side of the checkpoint with concrete walls.

    The Syrian side had been burned and looted and a senior Iraqi interior ministry official said it appeared to be in rebel hands. Iraqi officers said it was quiet after clashes overnight.

    The surge in violence has trapped millions of Syrians, turned sections of the capital into ghost towns and sent tens of thousands of refugees fleeing to neighboring Lebanon. The U.N. refugee agency said it had heard banks had run out of cash.

    "We have figures that there could be anywhere from 9,000 to 30,000 that have fled across the border into Lebanon just in the last 48 hours," UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told the BBC.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • UN chief says Syria hasn't fully complied with peace plan

    REUTERS/SANA/Handout

    A handout photograph released by Syria's national news agency SANA, shows Moroccan Colonel Ahmet Himmiche (3rd L), leader of the first U.N. monitoring team in Syria, during a visit with his team to one of Damascus' suburbs, one of the locations of protests against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad April 18.

     

    By Reuters

    UNITED NATIONS -- Syria has not fully complied with its obligations to withdraw troops and heavy weapons from towns and has yet to send a "clear signal" about its commitment to peace, the U.N. chief told the Security Council in a letter obtained by Reuters on Wednesday.

    Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said an expanded U.N. monitoring mission for Syria would be comprised of "an initial deployment" of up to 300 unarmed observers who would supervise a fragile week-old ceasefire between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and opposition fighters seeking to oust him.

    "The Syrian Government has yet to fully implement its initial obligations regarding the actions and deployments of its troops, or to return them to barracks," he told the council.

    "Violent incidents and reports of casualties have escalated again in recent days, with reports of shelling of civilian areas and abuses by Government forces," he said. "The Government reports violent actions by armed groups."

     

    "The cessation of armed violence is therefore clearly incomplete," Ban said, adding that both sides say they are committed to ending the "violence in all its forms."

    Diplomats on the 15-nation council say Ban's report and a briefing they will receive from U.N.-Arab League mediator Kofi Annan's deputy Jean-Marie Guehenno on Thursday at 9:00 a.m. ET will be crucial in determining whether the conditions are right for deploying a U.N. monitoring mission to Syria.

    Correspondent Neil Connery has travelled to the city of Al-Qusayr, near Homs, where he has discovered that Syrian forces and tanks still occupy the area.

    Ban said such a force would be helpful in securing an end to all fighting though it was essential the conditions be right for deployment.

    "Developments since 12 April underline the importance of sending a clear message to the authorities that a cessation of armed violence must be respected in full, and that action is needed on all aspects of (Annan's) six-point (peace) plan," he said.

    Diplomats' wives urge Syrian first lady: 'Stop your husband'

    "At the same time the very fragility of the situation underscores the importance of putting in place arrangements that can allow impartial supervision and monitoring," he said.

    An advance team of monitors in Syria had visited the town of Deraa and "enjoyed freedom of movement" there, Ban said. However, he noted that "the team's initial request to visit Homs was not granted, with officials claiming security concerns."

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  • Syrian troops launch ground assault on restive city

    Gianluigi Guercia / AFP - Getty Images

    A Free Syria Army member sits guard at a gate during the funeral of a man who was killed by shrapnel in Qusayr, 9 miles from Homs on Tuesday.

     

    By msnbc.com news services

    Heavy fighting broke out on Wednesday near the main rebel stronghold of Baba Amr in the city of Homs when Syrian troops began a ground assault, opposition sources told Reuters.

    "The army is trying to go in with infantry from the direction of al-Bassel football field and fierce confrontations with automatic rifles and heavy machine guns are taking place there," activist Mohammad al-Homsi told the news service from Homs.

    He said the military had shelled the area heavily on Tuesday and overnight before the ground attack started.

    While shelling continues on Homs, it was confirmed journalist Paul Conroy, of the Sunday Times, who was wounded in the attack that killed reporter Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik, is safely out of Syria.  ITN's Tim Ewart reports.

    The reports of a ground assault came as the United Nations put the death toll in the 11-month uprising against authoritarian President Bashar Assad at well over 7,500. Activists reported more than 250 dead in the past two days alone — mostly from government shelling in Homs and Hama province.

    Clinton: Syria's Assad could be labeled a war criminal

    Tunisia's president — the first since the country's own Arab Spring uprising toppled his predecessor — offered the Syrian leader asylum as part of a negotiated peace, an offer Assad will almost surely refuse.

    A Syrian diplomat reportedly stormed out of an emergency U.N. meeting amid renewed calls for a cease-fire to deliver humanitarian aid. A top human rights official told The Associated Press a U.N. panel's report concluded that members of the Damascus regime were responsible for "crimes against humanity."

    Rebel stronghold shelled as Syria vote result looms

    In shift, China backs aid
    In a possible significant change of tact, China backed international efforts to send humanitarian aid to Syria, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said, after Western powers proposed a United Nations resolution authorizing humanitarian aid.

    It was not clear whether Yang's remarks mean China will consider the proposed new U.N. Security Council resolution. China is one of the five permanent members of the Council which have the power to veto such resolutions.

    "The pressing task now is for all sides to cease violence in the Syrian conflict, and to launch as soon as possible inclusive political dialogue and together deliberate on a reform plan," Yang told Elaraby, who has previously said Beijing's veto lost it diplomatic credit in the Arab world.

    'I think I will die,' man in Syria's besieged city of Homs says — then the line goes dead

    "The international community should create conditions for this, and extend humanitarian aid to Syria," added Yang.

    China is trying to win back diplomatic ground after its widely condemned handling of the Syrian crisis.

    Western powers said the U.N. Security Council would work on a draft resolution about extending help to stricken parts of Syria, and France urged Russia and China not to veto it, as they have previous drafts.

    Yang made the comments in a phone call late on Tuesday with the head of the Arab League, Nabil Elaraby, the official Xinhua news service reported on Wednesday.

    The bloodshed in Syria, where government forces have been bombarding neighborhoods held by opposition forces, has turned into a broader test setting Western powers against China and Russia over how the world should respond to civil turmoil.

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    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

  • Clinton: Syria not another Libya, political solution needed

    Speaking at the U.N. Security Council US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says, "It is time for the international community to put aside our own differences and send a clear message of support to the people of Syria."

    By NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news services

    Updated at 1:35 p.m. ET Wednesday: Amnesty International urges Russia to stop its “unconscionable” obstruction of U.N. efforts to help end the bloodshed in Syria. “Russia’s threats to abort a binding U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria for the second time are utterly irresponsible. Russia bears a heavy responsibility for allowing the brutal crackdown on legitimate dissent in Syria to continue unchecked,” said José Luis Díaz, Amnesty International's representative to the U.N. in New York.

    Updated at 4:45 p.m. ET: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged the Security Council to adopt the Arab League plan for a political process to end the violence in Syria, saying it would be different from U.N. efforts to pacify Libya.

    The Arab League plan calls for Syrian President Bashar Assad to transfer his powers to his deputy to prepare for elections.

    "I know that some members here may be concerned that the Security Council is headed toward another Libya," she said. "That is a false analogy."

    Updated at 3:45 p.m. ET: Western and Arab nations launched a major diplomatic offensive at the U.N. on Tuesday in hopes of overcoming Russia's opposition to a resolution demanding that Syrian President Bashar Assad relinquish power, The Associated Press reported.

    Don Emmert / AFP - Getty Images

    Nabil Elaraby, Secretary General of the League of Arab States, speaks at the U.N. in New York on Tuesday.

    U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the British and French foreign ministers traveled to New York for the afternoon Security Council session on the situation in Syria.

    Nabil Elaraby, the chief of the Arab League, called on the Security Council to take 'rapid and decisive action' on Syria, Reuters reported

    "Realizing the hopes of the Syrian people is in your hands," Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassem Bin Jabr Al Thani told council members, asking them to adopt the resolution, based on the Arab League's peace plan for the country. "It is part of your responsibility under the (U.N.) charter," he said, according to The Associated Press. 

    Updated at 12:35 p.m. ET: Syrian leader Bashar Assad cannot sustain his hold on power and it is a matter of time before his leadership falls, U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told senators, according to Reuters.

    "I personally believe it's a question of time before Assad falls, but that's the issue, it could be a long time," Clapper told a Senate intelligence committee hearing. "Protraction of these demonstrations, the opposition continues to be fragmented, but I do not see how he can sustain his rule of Syria."

    Slideshow: A glimpse inside Syria

    Ayman Mohyeldin / NBC News

    President Bashar Assad's regime is intensifying its violent crackdown on Syrian protesters, despite international pressure. NBC News' Ayman Mohyeldin is one of the few Western journalists to have been granted permission inside Syria in recent weeks, click to see some of his photos.

    Launch slideshow

    Meanwhile, British newspaper the Guardian reported that a copy of the draft U.N. resolution demanding Assad step aside tried to address Russian concerns that the vote could open the door to western military intervention.

    The draft obtained by the newspaper said the council is "reaffirming its strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Syria, emphasising the need to resolve the current crisis in Syria peacefully, and stressing that nothing in this resolution compels states to resort to the use of force or the threat of force," according to the newspaper.

    The draft did not entirely exclude the possibility of military action, however, the newspaper reported.

    Published at 8:30 a.m. ET: A senior Russian diplomat warned Tuesday that a draft U.N. resolution demanding Syrian President Bashar Assad step aside is a "path to civil war," as Syrian troops crushed pockets of resistance by rebel soldiers on the outskirts of Damascus.

    The U.N. Security Council was to meet Tuesday to discuss the draft, backed by Western and some Arab powers. But Russia would likely veto any punitive action.

    "The Western draft Security Council resolution on Syria does not lead to a search for compromise," Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov wrote on Twitter. "Pushing this resolution is a path to civil war."

    Russia has been one of Assad's strongest backers as he tries to crush an uprising that began nearly 11 months ago. In October, Moscow vetoed the first council attempt to condemn Syria's crackdown and has shown little sign of budging in its opposition.

    President Bashar Assad's regime has slaughtered thousands of people since March, according to the United Nations. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.

    The draft text of the resolution, seen by The Associated Press, insists there will be no use of foreign forces in the country. It calls on Assad's regime to immediately put "an end to all human rights violations and attacks against those exercising their rights to freedom of expression."

    It calls on Assad to delegate his "full authority to his deputy" to allow a national unity government to lead transition to a democratic system. The text, the drafting of which has been led by Morocco, insists it does not compel "states to resort to the use of force, or the threat of force."

    U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday he hoped the Security Council would reflect international will when it deliberates the resolution.

    "I sincerely hope the Security Council will be united and speak in a coherent manner reflecting the wishes of the international community," Ban told reporters in the Jordanian capital Amman. "This is crucially important."

    China, which like Russia has a veto in the council, also has reservations about the draft. Russia and China vetoed a European-drafted resolution in October that condemned Syria and threatened it with sanctions.

    "I don't think we can go on like this," Ban said.

    Syria's crackdown on protesters and anti-government fighters had gone on despite a now-suspended Arab League monitoring mission and action was needed to stop the bloodshed, he said.

    "Even with the monitoring missions having been there, more than a few hundred have been killed ... every day tens of people are killed ... this should stop immediately," Ban said. "It is crucially important for the Security Council to act on this."

    Escalating violence
    Meanwhile Tuesday, government troops were deploying in "massive numbers" to the suburbs of Damascus, the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told NBC News. The group said at least 11 people had been killed as of Tuesday morning.

    The Observatory, which supports the Free Syrian Army, said government forces were targeting civilians who were aiding defectors, NBC reported.

    Fighting has escalated in the past several days with at least 100 people killed on Monday alone.

    The office of U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay voiced alarm on Tuesday at the escalating violence and called on Syrian authorities to "stop the killing of civilians" while also urging opposition forces to show restraint.

    "It does look like there's a very dangerous and alarming escalation taking place including right in the suburbs of Damascus," U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing in Geneva.

    "So once again we urge the Syrian authorities to stop the killing of civilians in Syria. And we also urge the opposition fighters to take extreme caution too and ensure that there is no more unnecessary killing," he said.

    More than 5,000 people have been killed in the uprising as of mid-December, according to Pillay's office.

    Despite "high rates of casualties" since then, it has been impossible to verify incidents and lists of victims compiled by five or six human rights groups on the ground, Colville said.

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