North Korea, 2010

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.