North Korea’s friends and enemies on Friday joined forces in opposing its determination to be recognized as a nuclear-weapons state and calling on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to negotiate the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula — but the North gave no sign of budging on its nuclear ambitions.
In a rare appearance by a North Korean at the UN Security Council, North Korean Ambassador to the UN Ja Song-nam told a ministerial meeting that the nation’s possession of nuclear weapons was “an inevitable self-defensive measure” to defend against “the US nuclear threat and blackmail.”
Ja never mentioned the possibility of talks. Instead, he called the council meeting “a desperate measure plotted by the US being terrified by the incredible might of our republic that has successfully achieved the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force.”
He pointed to the Nov. 29 launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, which experts say could reach the US mainland.
South Korean Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun told the council that North Korea is “in the final stages of nuclear weaponization” and said that if it can put a nuclear warhead on an intercontinental ballistic missile “it will fundamentally alter the security landscape in the region and beyond.”
He urged the international community to grasp the urgency of the threat this poses and find ways to halt the North’s nuclear program, including by uniting in saying “absolutely no” to North Korean attempts to be recognized as a nuclear-weapons state.
“We will never accept a nuclear North Korea,” US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said.
Earlier this week, Tillerson stunned many by proposing talks with North Korea without preconditions, but he stepped back on Friday, after the White House rebutted the proposal, telling the council: “North Korea must earn its way back to the table.”
The US, South Korea and Japan called for increased pressure on the North to get Kim’s government to negotiate the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Ja said his nation has been the target of 11 UN sanctions resolutions. The US, the EU, South Korea, Japan and other countries have imposed additional measures, but all these bans have not stopped Kim’s nuclear and missile tests or led to negotiations.
Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Taro Kono urged the international community to maximize pressure on North Korea “by all means available,” saying there is no other way to get Pyongyang to curb its nuclear and missile programs.
He announced that Japan has ordered the assets of 19 North Korean entities to be frozen.
Kono said last week’s visit to Pyongyang by UN Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman “only reconfirmed the dire reality” that North Korea “is nowhere near ready” to abandon its nuclear and missile programs, “nor is it interested in returning to a meaningful dialogue.”
Feltman said on Tuesday that North Korea’s foreign minister and others told him “that it was important to prevent war” — and how to do that was the topic of more than 15 hours of discussions.
Council diplomats said Feltman told them the North Koreans kept repeating that the time was not right for talks.
In his briefing to Friday’s meeting, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres offered his “good offices” to avoid the dispute over the “alarming and accelerated pace” of North Korea’s nuclear and missile program.
Guterres said that “the risk is being multiplied by misplaced over-confidence, dangerous narratives and rhetoric, and the lack of communication channels.”
He urged an immediate re-establishment and strengthening of government and military communications.
Speaker after speaker at the ministerial meeting expressed concern about possible conflict.
“Military rhetoric accompanied by a test of strength by the participants has led to a situation where around the world, people have begun to wonder whether there will be war or not,” Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia said.
He questioned the US commitment to peace on the Korean Peninsula, saying two-and-a-half months of quiet from North Korea was answered by Washington and its allies with unscheduled and unprecedented military exercises in their scale, unilateral sanctions and a declaration that the North is a state sponsor of terrorism.
“All of these steps force us to wonder about the sincerity of statements that suggest that there is a preference for a peaceful approach to resolving the crisis” by the US, Nebenzia said.
He said the North would not halt its nuclear and missile programs “while it feels a direct threat to its security” and urged practical steps to de-escalate the situation, including cancellation of planned US-South Korean exercises and a halt to North Korean tests.
“The core of the nuclear issue is security,” Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Wu Haitao (吳海濤) said. “There is no military option and resort to force can only bring disastrous consequences.”
China has made great efforts to promote dialogue and denuclearization, Wu said, but pushed back against US insistence that China holds the key to resolving the crisis.
“The current situation on the [Korean] Peninsula is not caused by any one party alone, and it is not possible to impose on any one party the responsibility of solving the problem,” he said.
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