North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun has written to the UN Security Council urging it to reject discussion on the Stalinist country's nuclear weapons drive.
In a letter sent last week to UNSC president Sergey V. Lavrov, Paek denounced Washington for starting "a diplomatic negotiation" to bring the nuclear issue before the council, according to Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
PHOTO: REUTERS
KCNA quoted Paek as saying North Korea would reject "any decision or measure" to be adopted by the UNSC regarding its nuclear program.
"The US is seeking to have in place a legal system aimed at check and control by other countries, based on its intelligence information, of the vessels and aircraft passing through their territorial waters and airspace," Paek said.
Washington is pressing UNSC members, who opted to take no action when they addressed the nuclear crisis for the first time earlier this year, to issue an unambiguous statement condemning North Korea.
While South Korea has reservations about the US drive to bring the crisis to the UN, North Korea has accused the US of developing plans to mount a blockade of the Stalinist state.
Paek insisted the UNSC should not be used as "a cover-up to justify unilateralism and policy of pressure of a certain country," KCNA said.
But he suggested that North Korea was ready to resolve the nuclear crisis through "an organic combination of all necessary forms of talks."
"It is the stand of the [North Korean] government that bilateral, tripartite and multilateral or any other forms of talks proposed by the concerned parties and other countries concerned should be held in an appropriate order," he said.
North Korea and the US sat down for their first talks in three-way negotiations with China in April but no further meetings have been scheduled.
The nuclear crisis flared in October last year when the US said Pyongyang had admitted to running a nuclear weapons program based on highly enriched uranium.
North Korea kicked out International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors in December and withdrew from a nuclear non-proliferation treaty in April.
On June 9 North Korea admitted publicly for the first time that it was seeking a nuclear weapons capability.
US officials do not know how far the program has progressed but they believe Pyongyang has already stockpiled enough plutonium for one or two nuclear weapons.
Washington is seeking support from its allies to choke off North Korea's alleged earnings from the sales of arms, illegal drugs and currency counterfeiting.
As the sun sets on another scorching Yangon day, the hot and bothered descend on the Myanmar city’s parks, the coolest place to spend an evening during yet another power blackout. A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted Southeast Asia this week, sending the mercury to 45°C and prompting thousands of schools to suspend in-person classes. Even before the chaos and conflict unleashed by the military’s 2021 coup, Myanmar’s creaky and outdated electricity grid struggled to keep fans whirling and air conditioners humming during the hot season. Now, infrastructure attacks and dwindling offshore gas reserves mean those who cannot afford expensive diesel
Does Argentine President Javier Milei communicate with a ghost dog whose death he refuses to accept? Forced to respond to questions about his mental health, the president’s office has lashed out at “disrespectful” speculation. Twice this week, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni was asked about Milei’s English Mastiff, Conan, said to have died seven years ago. Milei, 53, had Conan cloned, and today is believed to own four copies he refers to as “four-legged children.” Or is it five? In an interview with CNN this month, Milei referred to his five dogs, whose faces and names he had engraved on the presidential baton. Conan,
French singer Kendji Girac, who was seriously injured by a gunshot this week, wanted to “fake” his suicide to scare his partner who was threatening to leave him, prosecutors said on Thursday. The 27-year-old former winner of France’s version of The Voice was found wounded after police were called to a traveler camp in Biscarrosse on France’s southwestern coast. Girac told first responders he had accidentally shot himself while tinkering with a Colt .45 automatic pistol he had bought at a junk shop, a source said. On Thursday, regional prosecutor Olivier Janson said, citing the singer, that he wanted to “fake” his suicide
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed his pledge to replace India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a uniform civil code if he returns to office for a third term, a move that some minority groups have opposed. In an interview with the Times of India listing his agenda, Modi said his government would push for making the code a reality. “It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society,” he said in the interview published yesterday. “We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other