North Korea, 2011

First of all, I would like to

congratulate Mr. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser on his

election as President of the General Assembly at its

sixty-sixth session. I am confident that his able

leadership will lead this session to a successful result.

My congratulations also go to the Republic of South

Sudan on its admission to the United Nations.

This year marks the twentieth year of

membership of the Democratic People’s Republic of

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Korea in the United Nations. Our country joined the

United Nations as a result of its desire to defend world

peace and achieve mankind’s common prosperity,

working together with all United Nations Members.

Since that time, the Democratic People’s Republic of

Korea has remained faithful to the purposes and

principles of the Charter of the United Nations, as it

had pledged.

However, given the present status of international

relations, the logic of power and highhanded politics

has become all the more obvious, thus negating the

principle of sovereign equality, despite the efforts and

desires of the United Nations Member States. A few

countries are involved in interference in internal affairs

and the use of force against sovereign States in an

attempt to dominate regions where they feel they have

strategic interests under the pretext of protecting

civilians and defending peace.

Regrettably, the United Nations has been misused

in this process. International law and order have been

violated and undermined by the arbitrary and high-

handed acts of some major Powers. Given that current

reality Member States should reaffirm the principle of

defending peace and sovereign equality as enshrined in

the Charter of the United Nations, and speed up the

process of reform of the United Nations, including

enhancing the power of the General Assembly.

A long time ago, the General Assembly adopted

resolutions on dismantling the United Nations

Command in Korea and putting an end to the United

States blockade against Cuba, which have not been

implemented so far. This is just a random example that

highlights the urgent need to enhance the authority of

the General Assembly. To enhance the authority of the

General Assembly it is urgently necessary to put in

place a mechanism whereby Security Council

resolutions related to peace and security, such as those

on sanctions and the use of force, are subject to the

approval of the General Assembly before they take

effect.

Two other areas where the prevailing logic of

power in international relations can clearly be seen are

the Third Committee of the General Assembly and the

Human Rights Council. Though it is said that reform is

intended to put an end to politicization, selectivity and

double standards in dealing with human rights issues,

there still remains the prevailing reality whereby

specific countries are selected for discussion of their

human rights situations, while other major human

rights violators are simply passed over in silence, all in

accordance with the political objectives and interests of

the West and the criteria of Western values. It is our

view that the reform process of the human rights

bodies should be intensified, so as to enhance the

system that seeks to ensure genuine freedoms and

rights for the people of all countries, and respect for

their diverse histories, cultures, ideas and systems.

Meanwhile, some progress has been made in the

field of sustainable development, one of the three goals

set by the United Nations for the last two decades

following the Rio Declaration on Environment and

Development. However, we are still faced with

tremendous challenges.

We consider that the United Nations Conference

on Sustainable Development to be held in 2012 should

take practical steps towards the creation of a peaceful

environment for development, the establishment of fair

international economic and trade relations, the removal

of sanctions, the implementation of official

development assistance commitments, the transfer of

environmentally friendly technology and increased

financial assistance to developing countries.

It is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people

to live free of the Israeli occupation and to create an

independent State of their own. It is also an obligation

of the international community to admit Palestine as a

full-fledged United Nations Member State. The

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea recognized

Palestine as a State in 1988 and we support its

admission to the United Nations. We believe that the

aspirations of the Palestine people will be translated

into a reality.

Today in the Democratic People’s Republic of

Korea, a general campaign is on in full swing to build a

powerful State, under the wise leadership of the great

General Kim Jong Il. The Government of the

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is

concentrating all its resources on economic

development, with a main emphasis on significantly

improving the people’s livelihood. We are achieving

unprecedented and remarkable success. Our economic

development in the Democratic People’s Republic of

Korea will make a meaningful contribution to the

efforts of the international community to foster

regional development and to attain the Millennium

Development Goals.

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In that context, a stable and peaceful environment

is a vital prerequisite for the Democratic People’s

Republic of Korea and its people today in their struggle

for economic development. To our regret, however, the

Korean peninsula does not yet have with a lasting and

stable peace mechanism. The national division imposed

by outside forces and the fragile armistice that leaves

us in a state of neither war nor peace have now been in

place for more than half a century. That is the stark

reality of the Korean peninsula.

Despite the unanimous aspirations and desires of

all the people at home and abroad who want peace and

stability, the arms build-up and nuclear war exercises

continue to be staged one after another against the

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in and around

the Korean peninsula. Because of that, there is a

constant recurrence of a dangerous situation on the

Korean peninsula, which is often driven to a brink of

war.

The prevailing situation not only poses a grave

threat to the sovereignty and security of our Republic

but also obstructs the efforts of our people to achieve

peaceful development. Had it not been for the Songun

ideology implemented by the great leader of our

people, General Kim Jong Il, and had it not been for

our powerful war deterrent, the Korean peninsula

would have been turned into a theatre of war scores of

times and our peaceful economic development would

have been unimaginable.

The Government of the Democratic People’s

Republic of Korea remains consistent in its stand to

secure peace and stability and move towards the

denuclearization of the Korean peninsula through

dialogue and negotiation. The present circumstances of

the Korean peninsula require all parties concerned to

seize the opportunity for dialogue and take courageous

decisions to act boldly on solving the fundamental

issues.

The continued existence of the tense situation on

the Korean peninsula is attributable to the hostile

relations between the Democratic People’s Republic of

Korea and the United States, which give rise to

mistrust and confrontation. As long as hostility exists

between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

and the United States, with the parties to the Military

Armistice Agreement levelling guns at each other,

mistrust and confrontation will not dissipate and the

denuclearization of the Korean peninsula will not be

possible.

It was with that in mind that the Democratic

People’s Republic of Korea proposed again last year to

hold talks for replacing the Armistice Agreement with

a peace agreement. The signing of a peace agreement

as part of implementing resolution 3390 (XXX),

adopted at the thirtieth session of the General

Assembly in 1975, would be the most effective

confidence-building measure towards alleviating the

mistrust between the Democratic People’s Republic of

Korea and the United States, and would further serve

as a driving force for ensuring the denuclearization of

the Korean peninsula.

Denuclearization of the whole Korean peninsula

was the last instruction given by the great leader of the

Korean people, President Kim Il Sung. The

denuclearization of the Korean peninsula specified in

the Joint Statement of 19 September 2005 is a process

of turning the whole Korean peninsula into a nuclear-

free zone based on complete removal in a verifiable

manner of the actual nuclear threat to the Korean

peninsula from the outside.

The issue of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula

originated, for all intents and purposes, from the

hostile policy and nuclear war threats of the United

States against the Democratic People’s Republic of

Korea. Such being the case, the United States is the

main party that is responsible for and capable of

removing the root cause of the problem. The nuclear

issue would never have been raised at all, if the United

States had refrained from deploying nuclear weapons

in the Korean peninsula and threatening the

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea with nuclear

arms.

Under the present circumstances, in which the

Korean peninsula stands at the crossroad of either a

relaxation of tension or a continuation of the vicious

cycle of aggravation of tension, the United States

should boldly abandon its hostile policy against the

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and move

towards full-fledged dialogue, proceeding from its

long-term strategic vision. The Democratic People’s

Republic of Korea will make strenuous efforts in the

future as well to establish a durable and lasting peace

mechanism on the Korean peninsula and will continue

to cooperate with all parties concerned for

unconditional resumption of the Six-Party Talks.

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Inter-Korean relations have been developing

favourably on the Korean peninsula since the

publication of the June 15 North-South Joint

Declaration. However, it is extremely unfortunate that

North-South relations have now been aggravated to

their worst state ever, with a widespread atmosphere of

warmongering and confrontation with fellow

countrymen, after the current South Korean authorities

took office. There is a serious problem behind all that,

the issue of fundamental contradictions and antagonism

in the approach towards the reunification of the Korean

peninsula.

Different ideas and systems exist now in the

North and the South of Korea. Given that reality, the

choice of method of reunification is itself a vital issue

that will lead either to national reunification or to

national disaster. The North and the South of Korea,

through the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration of

2000, recognized that there is common ground in the

federal formula proposed by the North and the

confederal one proposed by the South for reunification,

and agreed to orient the reunification along this

direction in the future.

That agreement between the North and the South

enjoyed warm support and was welcomed by our

fellow countrymen and the international community,

including the United Nations. But the present South

Korean authorities reneged on the June 15 North-South

Joint Declaration on the agreed reunification method

and came up with what they called the theory of

unification through absorption, which presupposes the

collapse of the other party, and thus put inter-Korean

relations into a phase of touch-and-go confrontation

and increased the danger of war with each passing day.

In view of the prevailing reality of the Korean

peninsula, the so called unification through absorption

is a road to war, whereas the federal formula is a road

to peace. The federal formula is a realistic proposal for

reunification premised on coexistence and the best

possible method of reunification able to prevent war. It

is also a reasonable proposal for reunification that

accords with the interests of the region and the

neighbouring countries, as it presupposes the neutrality

of the reunified State.

If the present South Korean authorities truly want

to see the relaxation of tensions in the Korean

peninsula and an improvement in inter-Korean

relations, they should abandon their confrontational

attitude against peace and reunification and switch over

to a policy of respecting and fully implementing the

15 June Joint Declaration and 4 October Declaration,

agreed at the summit level between the North and the

South.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea will,

in the future, further strengthen and develop friendly

and cooperative relations with all United Nations

Member States, in accordance with its foreign policy

principles of independence, peace and friendship, and

will do its level best to defend peace and security in the

Korean peninsula and in the rest of the world and to

promote joint development and the common prosperity

of all humankind.