At the outset, I would like to congratulate Mr. Abdulla Shahid on his election as President of the General Assembly at its seventy-sixth session. I am sure that his able stewardship will lead us to great success. In the face of unprecedented challenges and crises, I hope that this session will serve as an important occasion for all States Members of the United Nations to share useful experiences with one another in order to overcome difficulties, promote socioeconomic recovery and open up a new future through hope.
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, which has taken approximately 4.7 million precious lives, continues to rage. It is worsening socioeconomic situations around the globe due to economic stagnation, racial discrimination and the widening gap between rich and poor. Global warming is giving rise to destructive abnormal weather patterns, affecting every part of the world simultaneously and teaching us the serious lesson that no one should turn a blind eye to climate change. To make matters worse, the selfish and unjust behaviour of some Member States and specific forces have ensured that conflicts and ethnic disputes among countries and nations are continuing, with innocent people suffering in many regions of the world, including the Middle East, Africa and South-East Asia. It is no exaggeration to say that the international community is facing its most serious crisis since the founding of the United Nations. That reality urgently requires all Member States to find appropriate solutions to our problems while remaining more faithful than ever to the Charter of the United Nations, international law and the fundamental principles of international relations, as well as pooling their political will and efforts and strengthening mutual cooperation.
I would first like to highlight the efforts of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the areas of fighting the pandemic and socioeconomic development, with a view to contributing actively to our discussion of the theme of this session, on recovering from the global health crisis and building socioeconomic resilience. Owing to external factors, my country’s circumstances are extremely unfavourable compared with others. However, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is never daunted or restricted by circumstances. We are advancing vigorously along the development track we have been aiming for, based on the world’s most stable and solid political environment and through our own efforts overcoming all kinds of disturbing factors and challenges in our path. Thanks to the steady efforts of the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea towards socioeconomic development and improving people’s living standards, we have made proud and valuable progress. Our Government’s current core policy is designed to cope with the global health crisis and climate change with a far-seeing plan and to provide the people with more stable and improved living conditions while sustainably increasing agricultural production.
Since we consider it vital to quarantine thoroughly against COVID-19, the Government has taken comprehensive anti-epidemic measures showing empathy for all and ensuring united action. My delegation believes that as we work to recover from COVID-19, it is important for each country to take anti-epidemic measures suitable to its own particular conditions, with a high sense of responsibility for the lives and safety of its own people. In the face of the protracted global pandemic, which continues to spread, we will reliably safeguard the lives and safety of our people and the well-being of our country by reinforcing the existing anti-epidemic regime with improved measures.
Despite the continued global health crisis and abnormal weather conditions, we have made a number of achievements in terms of social and economic development and the improvement of people’s living standards. The industrial sector is moving forward, as we have focused various efforts on strengthening the country’s capabilities in self-supporting development. Good prospects have also opened up in the agricultural sector with regard to putting fulfilment of this year’s grain production plan on a sound footing by minimizing the disastrous effects of climate change.
As the supreme principle of its activities, the Workers’ Party of Korea invariably upholds its duty to provide the Korean people with a stable life and to steadily improve it. In accordance with a decision made at an important meeting some time ago, our country has taken measures to regularly provide its children with nutritious food such as dairy products free of charge at the State’s expense, even at this difficult time. Tens of thousands of modern homes will be built annually at the State’s expense and allocated to the people, thanks to the people-oriented policy of the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
With regard to climate change, the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has formulated a plan that includes river improvement, afforestation for erosion control, dyke maintenance and tidal embankment projects across the country. The Government will manage those projects on a regular basis for a five-year period and is taking strict crisis- management measures in order to mitigate natural disasters, including floods and typhoons. I believe that our Government’s achievements in dealing with the global health and climate change crises will contribute to the efforts of the international community to recover from COVID-19 and build sustainable socioeconomic resilience.
The world is facing greater difficulties than ever before, with challenges and threats, big and small, everywhere. Even in these circumstances, we have had great success and have garnered our people’s gratitude and support. Under the wise political guidance of our party and our State leadership, we are steadily effecting development changes through our own efforts. Our people trust in the party and the Government, united in mind and destiny. That is where the invincible power of our State and the source of its inexhaustible strength lie.
Thirty years ago, on 17 September 1991, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea became the 160th Member State of the United Nations when the General Assembly, at the 1st plenary meeting of its forty-sixth session, unanimously adopted resolution 46/1, welcoming the Republic to the community of nations. Since our country and nation have remained divided, the Republic initially considered joining the United Nations with a view to achieving reunification. To that end, we consistently maintained the position that northern and southern Korea should join the United Nations under a single name after confederating and reunifying, or alternatively that they should share one seat if reunification occurred after joining the Organization. But the anti-reunification and anti-national attempts became increasingly overt, making the national division permanent and legitimate and seeking to isolate the Republic internationally through the United Nations membership issue. Against that backdrop, we took the decisive measure of joining the United Nations on our own initiative.
The Korean nation and its people, who lived on the same territory for thousands of years and many generations with the same bloodline, were artificially divided by outside forces in the mid-twentieth century, and in the end joined the United Nations with two seats. That was a tragedy indeed. As a result of the Second World War, the United Nations was established with the primary responsibility of maintaining international peace and security. Nevertheless, against the will and desire of the Korean nation, the Korean peninsula was divided in two and since then has experienced constant tension and instability. That was the root cause of the pain and misfortune inflicted on the Korean nation. No one can deny that fact. It will never be forgotten and it has been passed down from generation to generation.
The international community also wishes to achieve a peaceful resolution to the issue of the Korean peninsula, for the sake of the Korean nation. I therefore want to take this opportunity to clarify the position of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on the root causes of the still unresolved issue of the
Korean peninsula and on the fundamental ways to ensure lasting peace and stability there. We believe in identifying a problem’s root causes before attempting to solve it. Three decades have passed since the end of the Cold War. But the Korean peninsula is still in a vicious cycle of looming tensions and confrontation. Its primary root cause is a policy of hostility towards the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. To this day, many Member States are unaware that the issue of the Korean peninsula has its origin in the hostile policy of the United States towards the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Worse still, they suffer from the misconception that the United States has become hostile to my country only due to the nuclear issue.
It is not my country’s possession of nuclear weapons that has triggered the United States’ hostile stance towards the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. On the contrary, it is the United States, the biggest nuclear power in the world, that has antagonized and posed a nuclear threat to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for more than 70 years. Its hostile policy is not at all abstract. We face military threats and hostile acts from the United States every day. From the first day of the foundation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the United States has not recognized our sovereignty, treating us as an enemy State and openly showing its hostility to the socialist system chosen by our people. The United States designated the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as a communist State and one with a non-market economy. It has also completely blocked, both institutionally and legislatively, the establishment of relations between our two countries in the areas of politics, economics and trade, using the unreasonable pretexts of issues to do with human rights, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the sponsoring of terrorism, religious oppression, money laundering and more.
If that is not a hostile policy, then what is it — a friendly policy? The hostile policy of the United States towards the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea finds its clearest expression in its military threats against us. Not a single foreign troop, not a single foreign military base exists on the territory of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. But in South Korea, almost 30,000 United States troops are stationed at numerous military bases, maintaining a war posture for taking military action against my country at any moment. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has never — not once — conducted a military exercise around the United States, but the United States has staged all manner of war drills on and around the Korean peninsula and in Korean waters every year for the past several decades by mobilizing army, naval and air forces across the world, including its own troops in South Korea, and it has threatened us through intimidating military demonstrations, while it continues to deploy numerous weapons to South Korea. In August 2021, despite our repeated warnings, the United States and South Korea defiantly conducted a combined command exercise, which is an outright war drill of an offensive nature. The difference between those exercises and the joint military exercises staged by the United States for the past several decades is in name only.
Inter-Korean relations have never been free of United States interference and obstruction, as the United States has stationed its troops in South Korea and has bound it with the chains of military alliance. Moreover, the inter-Korean agreements have never been faithfully implemented owing to the hostile behaviour of the South Korean authorities, which prioritize cooperation with an ally over the harmony of the nation.
The international community must not overlook one fact, which is that the relations between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the United States are not merely an example of those between unfriendly countries without diplomatic relations, but rather of those between belligerent countries that are legally in a state of war. The possible outbreak of a new war on the Korean peninsula has been contained not because of any mercy shown by the United States to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea but because our State has been developing a reliable deterrent that can hold hostile forces at bay and deter their attempts at military invasion. We have acquired reliable power to defend ourselves through continuing efforts, with clear insight into the demands of the times, which require that we possess the power we need for national defence in the current geopolitical environment and balance of power on the Korean peninsula, as well as constantly strained international relations.
There is no country on Earth that is under the constant threat of war facing the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and its people long for peace. What we mean by a war deterrent is literally the legitimate right to self-defence — one that can deter aggressive war and enable us to defend ourselves. As the whole world knows, and to the great concern of the United States, we do of course include powerful offensive means in our war deterrent. However, we do not want to target anyone with those means. In other words, we would never violate or endanger the security of the United States, South Korea or our neighbouring countries. We are simply building up our national defence in order to defend ourselves and reliably safeguard our country’s security and peace. For that reason, we do not imprudently say that we are building up military power that is good enough to deter provocation. However, the military threats against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea from the United States and its servile forces are evolving constantly with time.
The United States spends astronomical amounts of money — more than $700 billion annually — on developing supersonic weapons, long- range precision-guided weapons, new-generation intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear strategic bombers, all of which are bound to be used first against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in a future Korean war. The South Korean authorities have recently been hell-bent on developing ultramodern weapons with the tacit approval and patronage of the United States, and substantial war equipment has been shipped to South Korea. Such dangerous moves change the balance of military power on the Korean peninsula. Given that the United States and its military ally South Korea are increasing their military threats against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, no one can deny my country its legitimate right to defend itself by developing, testing, manufacturing and possessing weapon systems equivalent to the ones they possess or are developing.
In his report to the eighth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea, Kim Jong Un, Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, stated that the key to establishing new relations between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the United States will be the latter’s abandonment of its hostility to my country. In addition, he expressed the principled position that we would also approach the United States on the principle of power for power and goodwill for goodwill in future.
The United States now has two options. One is to contribute to the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula and the world by wholly and boldly abandoning its anachronistic hostile policy towards the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Successive United States Administrations have repeatedly expressed, both verbally and in writing, that they had no hostile intent towards my country, advocating dialogue with us. But as reality has shown, that was nothing more than flowery rhetoric to cover up their hostility.
The current Administration should demonstrate its stated policy that it has no hostile intent towards the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea through practical actions rather than words. It should also end its double standards towards my country. If the United States makes the bold decision to give up its hostile policy, we are also prepared to respond in kind. But at the present time we do not believe that there is any prospect of the United States truly abandoning that policy. Nevertheless, we will not implore it to do so. In the course of the showdown between our two countries spanning more than half a century, we have grown quite accustomed to United States military threats and we now know well how to deal with that very hostile country. We have learned how to cope with the hostility and have gained rich experience. We will continue to keep our eyes on changes in its policy towards the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
If the current United States Administration tries to solve the issue of the Korean peninsula, something that the preceding Administration failed to do, by relying on the same anachronistic means and methods, the result will be no different. If the United States continues to act in the same manner in order to threaten and provoke us, and relies on Cold War legacies such as military alliances, it will not end well. Not long ago, when it withdrew its troops from Afghanistan, the United States announced that it had put an end to its longest war, which lasted for 20 years. But in reality, the Korean war has gone on for more than 70 years. If the United States wants to see the Korean War, its most protracted war, come to an end, and if it truly desires peace and reconciliation on the Korean peninsula, it should take a first step towards abandoning its hostile policy towards the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea by permanently ending its joint military exercises and deployment of all kinds of strategic weapons targeting my country in and around the Korean peninsula. I am convinced that relations between the United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, as well as inter-Korean relations, will improve if the United States refrains from threatening my country and abandons its hostility to it.
The coronavirus disease pandemic, climate change, the refugee problem and endless disputes among countries are emerging as burning issues. Underlying
these are the self-serving policies of interference by the United States and the West. The Afghan crisis has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of innocent people and triggered a flow of millions of refugees, as well as the collapse of the State and the country’s social system. That is clear testimony to the tragic consequences of the open use of armed forces against a sovereign State and of interference in its internal affairs and occupation by foreign troops.
Reality urgently demands that the United Nations become a fair international Organization with strong executive power to discharge its mandate in conformity with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations. It is particularly urgent that we make the Security Council an impartial and responsible organ that substantially contributes to the maintenance of international peace and security, as explicitly stipulated in the Charter. The Council is not a political instrument through which certain global Powers take decisions on international relations and the destiny of sovereign States with a yardstick of double standards and on the basis of their own interests and priorities. The Security Council has not said a word about the reckless arms build-up and criminal war acts perpetrated by specific countries such as the United States and its servile forces. Instead, the Council takes every opportunity to find fault with the legitimate self-defence measures of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. That is telltale evidence that the United Nations does not represent the interests of a broad spectrum of the international community but has rather degenerated into a closed circle for the privileged few. In order to prevent high-handedness and arbitrariness in the Security Council, we should increase its representation of developing countries, which make up a majority of the United Nations. It is also imperative that the rules and procedures of the United Nations be revised so that resolutions adopted in the Security Council can be rejected, when necessary, by General Assembly resolutions, which reflect the will of an overwhelming majority of Member States.
Next, for the United Nations to be a fair Organization with practical abilities, we should revitalize its work based on the principles of sovereign equality and respect for peoples’ equal rights and their right to self-determination. Ensuring sovereign equality and respect for equal rights and self-determination are core principles of the Charter and the cornerstone of the Organization’s very existence. Some Member States try to unilaterally impose Western values and the rules-based international order on sovereign States under the guise of defending democracy and protecting human rights. Such attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of any sovereign State are gross violations of the principle of sovereign equality. Chaos, disorder, bloodshed and violence continue unabated in some countries owing to foreign intervention. Those unhappy events prove that human rights are directly linked to sovereign rights and that without them, people cannot avoid the fate of stateless nations fraught with misery and disaster.
The United Nations should do away with double standards and the unjust tendency to favour the positions of some countries and forces. It should rather ensure full impartiality and fairness, as required by the Charter, whose backbone is the principle of sovereign equality and respect for equal rights and the self- determination of peoples.
The delegation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea would like to take this opportunity to extend its full support and encouragement to the Government and the people of Cuba, who continue to move forward holding aloft the banner of socialism in the face of efforts by the United States to impose illegal sanctions and blockades and to undermine Cuba from within. I also want to express our constant support to independent countries such as Syria and Palestine and their peoples and our solidarity with them in their unyielding struggle to protect their national dignity, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea maintains unchanged its underlying foreign-policy ideas of independence, peace and friendship. In future, too, my country will discharge its responsibilities and duties to strengthen its friendship and unity with every country in the world that respects our sovereignty, in order achieve genuine international justice and equality and ensure peace and security on the Korean peninsula and in the rest of the world.