DPR Korea, at UN, calls for dialogue with US on de-nuclearizing peninsula

The Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) called today at the United Nations for a full-fledged dialogue with the United States and warned that reunification of the Korean Peninsula could only come through a federal formula as absorption would lead to war.

“Under the present circumstances where the Korean Peninsula stands at the crossroad of either relaxation of tension or the vicious cycle of aggravation of tension, the US should boldly abandon the hostile policy against the DPRK and move towards full-fledged dialogue, proceeding from its long-term strategic vision,” Deputy Foreign Minister Pak Kil Yon told the General Assembly’s annual general debate.

He blamed the US for the failure to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula citing the “hostile policy and nuclear war threat of the US against the DPRK. Such being the case, the US is the main party that is responsible for and capable of removing the root cause of the problem. The nuclear issue would have never been raised at all if the US refrained from deploying nuclear weapons in the Korean peninsula and threatening the DPRK with nuclear arms.”

Mr. Pak said nuclear war exercises continued to be staged against the DPRK, but the country would still cooperate with all the parties concerned for the unconditional resumption of the Six-Party Talks, which involve China, DPRK, Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK), Russia and the US, and seek to resolve the crisis over the DPRK’s nuclear programme.

The Security Council imposed a series of sanctions on the DPRK for its nuclear testing, beginning in 2006.

Inter-Korean relations had been developing favourably since 2000 but unfortunately “have now been aggravated in their worst state with widespread atmosphere of war and confrontation against the fellow countrymen after the present South Korean authorities took office,” Mr. Pak said, accusing the ROK of abandoning the federal or confederal system of reunification in favour of unification through absorption.

This “presupposes the collapse of the other party, and thus put the inter-Korean relations into a phase of touch-and-go confrontation and increased the danger of war with each passing day,” he stressed. “In view of the prevailing reality of the Korean Peninsula, the so-called ‘unification through absorption’ is the road to war whereas the federal formula leads to peace.”

Mr. Pak also called for enhancing the authority of the General Assembly by urgently putting in place a mechanism to make Security Council resolutions related to peace and security like those on sanctions and use of force subject to Assembly approval if they are to take effect.

Only Council resolutions are legally binding while those of the Assembly are recommendations.