Mr. President, on behalf of the
delegation of the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea, I would like, first of all, to congratulate you on
your election to the presidency of the United Nations
General Assembly at its sixty-fifth session. In the same
vein, I believe that your able leadership will bring
success to this session.
This year marks the sixty-fifth anniversary of the
founding of the United Nations. The founding of the
United Nations laid down an international legal basis
for preventing the recurrence of catastrophes, such as
the two World Wars that inflicted immeasurable
sufferings on humankind, for safeguarding world peace
and security and for achieving socio-economic
progress. The most important meaning of the founding
of the United Nations is the establishment of the
principle of sovereign equality in international
relations, which has enabled all States on this planet,
large and small, to join their efforts for peace and
development.
The history of the United Nations, spanning 65
years, is the history of continued challenges to the
purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter.
The logic and politics of power, which seek to negate
sovereign equality, still remain in sight in international
relations, even today after the turn of the century.
International law and order are trampled on by the
arbitrariness and high-handedness of individual
Powers. Military invasions of sovereign States, arms
build-ups and threats of use of force continue
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unchecked and, what is more, a series of pretexts are
used to justify them.
Despicable trickery and attempts to overthrow
other countries’ socio-political systems have become
ever more rampant. The banner of human rights
protection and the institutional mechanism of the
United Nations General Assembly are abused to that
end. To deny the right of other countries to choose their
own systems constitutes in itself a violation of the
human rights of their people. The Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea is one of those victimized countries.
That reality requires a strengthening of the role of
the United Nations, in conformity with the changed
times and situation, which, in our view, is possible only
after a more dynamic and appropriate reform of the
United Nations. The composition and the rules of
procedure of the Security Council should be
restructured and revised in such a way that the
representation and will of the entire United Nations
membership are correctly reflected, in particular, by
the full representation of the non-aligned countries and
other developing countries. The representation of a
new group of United Nations Member States that
achieved independence after the founding of the United
Nations should also be ensured.
The authority of the General Assembly should be
enhanced decisively. The General Assembly, which is
the most democratic organ in the United Nations, has
less power than the undemocratic Security Council.
That abnormal situation should no longer be allowed to
continue. In addressing key issues such as peace and
development, the broad and active participation of the
developing countries and their interests should be duly
promoted.
The Korean peninsula, like the Middle East, has
long been a chronic hot spot seriously affecting world
peace and security. The United Nations has included
the Korean issue as a major item on its agenda for over
30 years. This led to the adoption of resolution
3390 (XXX) in 1975, calling for the dissolution of the
United Nations Command in South Korea, the
withdrawal of all foreign forces there and the
replacement of the Armistice Agreement with a peace
agreement, as a measure to reduce tension and
maintain lasting peace on the Korean peninsula.
Another 35 years have elapsed since then. The
Korean peninsula is nevertheless still in a state of
armistice, which means that there is neither war nor
peace. While the aforesaid resolution is yet to be
implemented, the sovereignty and the efforts of the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea towards
peaceful development are constantly threatened and
undermined, as explosive situations leading to the
brink of war are created periodically on the Korean
peninsula. The most recent example is the farcical huge
sabre-rattling arms build-up and threat of use of force
waged on a massive scale by the United States and
South Korean authorities on the Korean peninsula and
its surroundings by taking advantage of the Cheonan
incident.
The touch-and-go situation created some time ago
in North-East Asia, including the Korean peninsula,
proved once again without a doubt that the United
States is not a defender, but a disruptor of peace. As
long as the United States nuclear aircraft carriers sail
around the seas of our country, our nuclear deterrent
can never be abandoned, but should rather be
strengthened further. That is the lesson we have drawn.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
regards it as its noble duty as a Member State to safeguard
peace and security and promote socio-economic
development and common prosperity in and around the
Korean peninsula. Had it not been for the powerful war
deterrent built by the Songun politics of the great
leader of our people, General Kim Jong Il, the Korean
peninsula would have already been turned into a
battlefield scores of times, thus destroying regional
peace and stability.
A peaceful environment is most urgently needed
for the Government and people of the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea, as they are now
concentrating all efforts on economic development in
order to open the gate for a powerful and prosperous
State in 2012, which marks the centennial anniversary
of the birth of the great leader, President Kim Il Sung.
This year, which falls on the sixtieth anniversary of the
outbreak of the Korean War, the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea again proposed respectfully to the
parties to the Armistice Agreement to begin talks as
early as possible with a view to replacing the Armistice
Agreement with a peace agreement. If that proposal is
realized, the General Assembly will see the
implementation of its historic resolution adopted 35
years ago. The conclusion of a peace agreement will
represent the most effective confidence-building
measure for removing distrust among the parties to the
Armistice and serve as a powerful driving force
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guaranteeing the denuclearization of the Korean
peninsula.
There is no change in the position of the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in its
opposition to nuclear war, the nuclear arms race and
nuclear proliferation. The denuclearization of the
Korean peninsula is the policy goal maintained
consistently by the Government of the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea for peace and security in
North-East Asia and the denuclearization of the world.
The denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, referred
to in the Joint Statement of the Six-Party Talks issued
on 19 September 2005, means the process of turning
the whole Korean peninsula into a nuclear-weapon-free
zone by completely eliminating the real external
nuclear threats on the Korean peninsula in a verifiable
manner. As already clarified, our nuclear weapons do
not serve as a means to attack or threaten others, but as
a self-defensive deterrent, for all intents and purposes,
to counter aggression and attacks from outside.
As a responsible nuclear-weapon State, we are
willing to join in the international efforts for nuclear
non-proliferation and the safe management of nuclear
material on an equal footing with other nuclear-weapon
States. It is the long-cherished desire of the entire
Korean nation to put an end to the history of
disgraceful division forced upon it by foreign forces
and to live peacefully on a reunified land.
In the new century, important progress towards
reconciliation, common prosperity and reunification
has been achieved in inter-Korean relations. The
historic inter-Korean summit between the North and
the South in 2000 and its resultant adoption of the joint
declaration of 15 June, followed by another inter-
Korean summit in 2007 and the publication of the
declaration of 4 October, constitute a good programme
for reunification, unprecedented in our national history.
Those historic declarations were welcomed and warmly
supported by the United Nations General Assembly.
Unfortunately, the present South Korean
authorities reject this grand reunification programme
and are driving inter-Korean relations towards a
rupture by bringing forward the so-called “three-phase
unification proposal”, which is anti-reunification and
confrontational. They are stepping up an atmosphere of
war against their fellow countrymen in collusion with
foreign forces with a view to rationalizing their
confrontational policy against the North. The
anti-reunification forces have no place on the Korean
peninsula and, as such, the anti-peace forces should not
be offered a place in the international community. In
the future, the Government of the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea will thoroughly implement the joint
declaration of 15 June and the declaration of 4 October,
and thus achieve the reconciliation and unity of the
nation, which will surely open a new era of
independent reunification, peace and prosperity.
The ideal of the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea’s foreign policy is independence, peace and
friendship. It accords with the ideas of the United
Nations. In accordance with that ideal, the Government
of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea will
further strengthen and develop friendly and cooperative
relations with all Member States and fully discharge its
responsibilities for ensuring peace and security in the
Korean peninsula and the rest of the world.
In conclusion, my delegation totally rejects the
provocative statement delivered by the South Korean
delegation on 25 September (see ), which
referred to the Cheonan incident again and distorted
the presidential statement of the Security Council of
9 July 2010 (S/PRST/2010/13 and S/PV.6355). The
truth of the Cheonan incident is still under cover. The
results of the unilateral investigation of South Korea,
have raised one doubt after another since its release,
following scientific military analysis and growing
manifold criticism inside and outside South Korea. The
South Korean authorities have persistently refused to
accept our proposal to send a field inspection group for
scientific and objective verification of the truth of the
incident.
The Security Council, in its presidential statement
dated 9 July 2010, took note of responses from other
relevant parties, including the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea, which has stated that it had nothing
to do with the incident and encouraged the settlement
of all outstanding issues by peaceful means to resume
direct dialogue and negotiations. South Korea is
advised not to create tension on the Korean peninsula
by waging war exercises with outside forces and
pursuing a confrontational approach in defiance of the
concerns of the international community. It should
immediately embark on North-South dialogue so as to
find solutions to all outstanding issues, as
recommended by the presidential statement of the
Security Council.