On behalf of the delegation of the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, I would like
to congratulate Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki on his
election as President of the General Assembly at its
sixty-fourth session. At the same time, I wish to
express my hope that his skilful stewardship will lead
the current session to success.
The sixty-fourth session of the General Assembly
will mark an end to the first decade of a new century,
which humankind has ushered in with a great deal of
anticipation and aspiration. One of the major tasks
facing the Assembly this year is to conduct an impartial
review of this first decade and set the correct path
ahead.
Humankind has yet to realize its long-cherished
desire to thrive in a peaceful and equitable world free
from war, while its hopes are confronted with a host of
serious challenges one after the other. The Afghan war
is in escalation and the Iraq war is still undecided. The
cold wind of a nuclear arms race is blowing, even
before negotiations on nuclear disarmament have been
opened. Avian influenza is not completely subdued, yet
a new strain of H1N1 flu is sweeping the world. The
world is undergoing a much greater degree of global
warming this year than last, and we are witnessing
more stagnant economies and many more people out of
work everywhere.
The United Nations Security Council has become
more arrogant, resulting in further inequality and
double standards in international relations. We need to
direct serious attention to this prevailing reality when
we review the first decade of the new century.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,
under the leadership of the great General Kim Jong Il,
has now entered a phase of State-building. A great,
prosperous and powerful nation is a country in which
national power is strong and everything thrives and
whose people live happily, with nothing to envy in the
world. To build such a country was the lifelong wish of
the great leader of our people President Kim Il Sung,
and it is the firm intention and wish of the Government
and people of the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea that such a thriving nation will be a reality by
2012, the centenary of Kim Il Sung’s birth.
The main task facing us over the next three years
is to concentrate all our efforts on building an
economic power, which is the last height we need to
scale in building a great, prosperous and powerful
nation. The Korean peninsula remains as ever in a state
of armistice. But now that we possess a dependable
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nuclear deterrent, we may be able to prevent war and
defend peace. For more than half a century our country
was compelled to produce guns rather than butter, as
we suffered under nuclear threats and the danger of
war posed by hostile forces. But today we have settled
down to channel our efforts into building a great,
prosperous and powerful nation. To all intents and
purposes, this is completely the result of the Songun-
based politics instituted by the great General Kim Jong
Il. And, when our country becomes an economic
power, that will create new impetus to the economic
development of the region. Our efforts to build up the
economy will constitute a significant part of the
international community’s efforts to attain the United
Nations Millennium Development Goals.
We have never opposed the denuclearization of
the Korean peninsula and the rest of the world.
Denuclearization was the wish of President Kim Il
Sung, and a nuclear-free world is a long-cherished
desire of mankind.
The Korean people are more devoted to the
sovereignty and peace of their country than any other
people or nation in the world, as a result of the
characteristics of their country’s historical
development. The Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea has done its utmost to bring about the peaceful
reunification of the country, to eliminate nuclear
threats and grounds for war and to secure peace and
stability on the Korean peninsula. We initiated the
denuclearization of North-East Asia and of the Korean
peninsula and put forward the proposals for the
Armistice Agreement to be replaced by a peace
agreement and for the adoption of a non-aggression
pact between the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea and the United States.
However, our efforts have not received an
appropriate response from the United States. The
United States considers the Korean issue only in the
light of its Asia strategy and does not want to see the
entire Korean peninsula denuclearized. That has
resulted in a greater nuclear threat facing the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The
arbitrariness of the United States can be seen in the
claim that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
is not allowed to launch even a peaceful satellite. The
Security Council is being manipulated by that
arbitrariness.
We have concluded that, as long as the United
States does not change its existing nuclear policy, we
have no option but to rely on our nuclear capability in
order to ensure the nuclear balance in the region and
preserve peace and stability in North-East Asia. The
denuclearization of the Korean peninsula depends on
whether or not the United States changes its nuclear
policy towards Korea. In order to realize the
denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, the United
States Administration must discard its long-standing
policy of confrontation and put into practice the change
that it has recently talked about on several occasions.
We are not engaged in a nuclear arms race. The
purpose of our nuclear weapon is to deter war. We will
only possess a nuclear deterrent so as to avert a
military attack or the threat of such an attack against
our country. Deterrence will be directly proportional to
the threat on the Korean peninsula, as in Europe and
elsewhere. As long as it possesses nuclear weapons, the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea will act
responsibly with regard to their management, use and
non-proliferation, and to nuclear disarmament. We
share the position of all peaceful countries, including
the non-aligned countries, in opposing nuclear war, the
nuclear arms race and the proliferation of nuclear
weapons.
United Nations sanctions have now been imposed
on us on the grounds that we had a nuclear deterrent. It
may be recalled that the United Nations was set up in
the country that produced the first nuclear weapon and
that all five permanent members of the Security
Council are nuclear Powers. If those countries had
demonstrated their commitment to nuclear
disarmament a long time ago and had refrained from
arbitrarily and selectively opposing the peaceful
satellite launch of another country, the nuclear situation
in the world might have developed differently.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
attaches importance to the principle of sovereign
equality enshrined in the United Nations Charter. The
principle of sovereign equality is also the reason why
we became a Member of the United Nations. Unjust
and selective sanctions will never be recognized or
accepted. The position of the Government of the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is to respond
to dialogue with dialogue and to sanctions by
strengthening nuclear deterrence. If the United States
brings sanctions to the talks, we will, for our part,
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participate in such talks by bolstering our nuclear
deterrence.
Thanks to the far-sighted bold decision of the
great General Kim Jong Il, North-South relations on
the Korean peninsula have entered a new phase. Just
over a year ago, the North and the South had to adapt
to changes owing to the differences in the positions of
the two parties towards the historic joint declaration of
15 June and the declaration of 4 October, which were
recognized and supported by the General Assembly.
However, our sincere and noble efforts paved the
way for a turning point so as to reach a common
understanding of those grand programmes for
reunification. Inter-Korean economic cooperation,
including the operation of the Kaesong industrial
complex, is back on track and separated families can be
reunited. In the future, the Government of the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea will also
continue to make all possible efforts to achieve
national reconciliation and unity and to bring forward
the independent and peaceful reunification of the
country under the banner of “by our nation itself”.
All Member States have accepted the need for
United Nations reform, as the new century requires.
Currently, the Security Council is the most
anachronistic organ of the United Nations. An
imbalance in relations, by which the strong nations
have ruled the weaker ones for the past half century,
remains part of the structure of the Security Council,
and it is precisely in the rules of procedure of that
Council that democracy is least developed. Today, the
General Assembly is the only place in the United
Nations where the views of the international
community can be properly reflected and democracy
ensured.
In order to strengthen the role of the United
Nations in line with the requirement of the times and
the new situation, it is important to thoroughly
democratize the Security Council and to substantially
increase the authority of the General Assembly. In
restructuring the Security Council, we should first
consider the issues that can be resolved, such as the
expansion of non-permanent members of the Security
Council on the principle of ensuring the full
representation of non-aligned and other developing
countries, which make up the majority of the United
Nations Member States.
In enhancing the authority of the General
Assembly, we need to discuss the issue of submitting
decisions of the Security Council to the General
Assembly for approval, in particular all decisions
relating to the principle of sovereign equality laid
down in the United Nations Charter. The United
Nations is required to have the proper criteria and
principles in order to examine human rights issues. The
United Nations Charter recognizes the rights of
national self-determination and choice and the
principle of non-interference in internal affairs, and all
international human rights instruments contain the
basic principle of the non-politicization of human
rights.
However, these days some debates in the United
Nations contradict that. Any attempt to bring into
question the systems of specific countries and to
interfere in their internal affairs under the guise of the
protection of human rights is, in itself, a violation of
human rights, denying the right of the people of those
countries to choose their own system. The United
Nations should pay attention to the fact that its human
rights agenda covers only the situations found in small
countries, with no mention of large ones, the West and
European countries. Due attention should also be given
to how to boost the role of the non-aligned and other
developing countries in the international arena.
International efforts to attain the Millennium
Development Goals and to address the central issues of
the United Nations, such as the global economic crisis
and climate change, urgently call for the active
participation of a wide range of developing countries,
including the Non-Aligned Movement.
The foreign policy of the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea has been, is and will be based on the
principles of independence, peace and friendship. The
Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea will actively strive to further strengthen and
develop friendly and cooperative relations with all
United Nations Member States under those principles,
and to fully discharge its commitment towards
defending the peace and security of the Korean
peninsula and the rest of the world.