North Korea, 2009

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.