Republic of Korea President calls on UN to spearhead way towards reunification

Citing the fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago, President Park Geun-hye of the Republic of Korea (ROK), used her address to the annual high-level meeting of the General Assembly today to call on the United Nations to spearhead efforts to tear down the world’s last remaining “wall of division” and reunite the Korean peninsula.

“A unified Korea will be the starting point for a world without nuclear weapons, offer a fundamental solution to the North Korean human rights issue, and help unlock a stable and cooperative Northeast Asia,” she told leaders from 193 countries on the first day of the 69th annual General Debate.

“Just as the unification of Germany laid the grounds for a new Europe by integrating Europe, a unified Korea will set in motion a new Northeast Asia.”

She proposed creating a wild-life eco-park within the four-kilometre-wide 250-kilometre-long Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the two countries as a first step in the process of allowing people on both sides to live in natural harmony.

“I call on the international community to stand with us in tearing down the world's last remaining wall of division,” she said.

Turning to her northern neighbour’s nuclear programme, Ms. Park noted that the Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK) is the only country to conduct a nuclear test in this century, calling its activities “the single-greatest threat to peace on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia.”

“The DPRK must make the decision to give up its nuclear weapons,” she said. “Should it choose to do so, the Republic of Korea, together with the international community, will provide our strong support for developing the DPRK economy.”

On global issues, Ms. Park stressed her country’s readiness to play a bridging role between developed and developing countries in post-2015 development, support international efforts to combat climate change, and continue to participate in UN peacekeeping missions.

She deplored conflicts raging in Syria, Libya and South Sudan, warning that the “activities of foreign terrorist fighters are posing new threats to peace internationally, not to mention in the Middle East.”