The following speech is made by DPRK Minister for Foreign Affairs Ri Su Yong Addresses the 69th Session of UN General Assembly. Also, for the sake of The 4th Media’s global viewership, the Statement made by Minister Ri at the High-level Segment of the 28th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva is also posted at the bottom.)
North Korea’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Ri Su Yong addresses the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York, September 28, 2014. North Korea slammed the UN Security Council claiming it practises double standards. — Reuters pic –
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Mr. President, Acting Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament,
Excellencies and delegates,
Today I am pleased to address this august multilateral disarmament negotiating forum in the United Nations (UN), which is growing ever more important in light of the present international developments.
At the outset, allow me to extend my warm congratulations to Mongolia on assuming the presidency of the Conference on Disarmament (CD) during its 2015 session, and I assure the President of the full support and cooperation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
I appreciate the efforts of Mexico towards moving the CD’s work forward as the first President of the CD 2015, and wish the other presidents of the Conference success in their collective efforts.
The DPRK is committed to the work of the CD and remains consistent in playing a constructive role, out of its noble idea to contribute to international peace and security.
The DPRK did its best to fulfill its responsibility and role on the principle of impartiality and transparency during the CD presidency in 2011, and continued to support the adoption of the resolution “Revitalizing the work of the Conference on Disarmament and taking forward multilateral disarmament negotiations” in the UN General Assembly each year.
Mr. President,
The First Special Session of the General Assembly devoted to Disarmament held in 1978 adopted a final document that conferred on the CD the mandate to negotiate multilateral disarmament treaties of global application towards the ultimate goal of general and complete disarmament.
Regrettably, overall process of the disarmament remains at a deadlock for nearly twenty years, contrary to expectations of the CD members.
While the discussion on the issues such as Nuclear Disarmament and Negative Security Assurances is with no progress in the CD, nuclear weapons on the globe have been further modernized and their destructive power drastically increased, and the number of countries inevitably acquiring nuclear deterrent capabilities has grown in their efforts to defend national security after having been long exposed to persistent nuclear threats of a nuclear weapon state (NWS).
In parallel, the global stockpiles of fissile materials are being steadily increased and the militarization of outer space accelerated at high speed.
Nevertheless, the CD is not yet ready to adopt Program of Work due to the absence of consensus on deciding the priority to negotiate the core issues on its agenda, rendering the work of the CD virtually paralyzed.
The reason for the CD not being revitalized lies, before anything else, in the lack of political will of some countries which are to assume the biggest responsibilities and obligations in the field of disarmament.
These countries attempt, in particular, to infringe upon the security interests of small countries while taking their own interests as absolute position against the spirit of multilateral cooperation. Such arbitrariness and double attitudes bring about negative consequences incurring an arms race far from genuine disarmament negotiations based on mutual trust among CD members.
It is hard to foresee a breakthrough in revitalizing the work of the CD unless the selfish and double attitudes of those countries are corrected.
Mr. President,
Nuclear disarmament is now at the crossroads.
Half a century ago, there were intensive debate in the CD concerning the priority over nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. Some NWS then pledged to strive for nuclear disarmament, thereby adopting the Treaty of Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) first.
For thirty years since then, no nuclear weapon state newly emerged. It can be said that non-nuclear weapon states (NNWS) did faithfully implement the treaty. However, nuclear disarmament was not fully realized during this period of time.
Though the US and the former Soviet Union reached bilateral agreements to cut the number of obsolete nuclear weapons, the modernization of nuclear weapons accelerated and nuclear threat against NNWS became ever more undisguised.
In a word, the commitment made by NWS to undertake nuclear disarmament on condition of nuclear non-proliferation was not honored.
The consequence has begun to take shape through the emergence of new nuclear weapon states in late 1990s. At present the number of nuclear weapon states increased almost twofold compared to 1968, the year when the NPT was adopted.
The nuclear map of the world today has significantly changed. Fewer people of the press or the academy pay attention to the issue of Nuclear Disarmament.
If the CD remains unable to fulfill its mandate any longer, the issue of Nuclear Disarmament will face the potential risk of disappearing for good from the UN agenda.
Mr. President,
The Korean Peninsula is a touch-and-go nuclear powder-keg where the largest nuclear weapon state and the youngest nuclear weapon state of the world are sharply confronted each other in a state of war.
The Korean Peninsula is the exhibition showcasing the consequence of NWS breaking its pledge made to NNWS at the time when the NPT was adopted.
Instead of providing security assurances to the DPRK which acceded to the NPT in 1985, the US has intensified nuclear threat against the DPRK rather than diminishing it.
The nuclear threat of the US towards the DPRK is, by no means, potential or abstract but a practical and physical matter. Strategic nuclear bombers fly non-stop from the US mainland or Guam Island to the Korean Peninsula and stage drills of dropping nuclear bombs several times every year.
Aircraft carriers and submarines loaded with nuclear missiles constantly enter the waters around and in the Korean Peninsula and take part in nuclear war exercises aimed to “occupy Pyongyang”.
The joint military exercises being staged across south Korea from March 2 are unprecedentedly provocative in nature and have especially high possibility of sparking off a war.
In case a war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, the US and its subordinate south Korea will be entirely responsible for all consequences.
While intentionally bringing danger of a nuclear war, they are crazy to survive the war by setting up the missile defence system.
One side’s threat will invoke the reaction from the other.
The hostile policy of the US towards the DPRK for over half a century, not just a couple of years, compelled the DPRK to pursue nuclear possession. The DPRK cannot but bolster its nuclear deterrent capability to cope with the ever-increasing nuclear threat of the US.
Now the DPRK has the power of deterring the US and conducting a preemptive strike as well if necessary.
The US should understand clearly that the times when the US unilaterally posed nuclear threats against the DPRK have gone for good and military threats cannot be the means of resolving issue.
The grave reality of the Korean Peninsula proves who is to blame for the global retreat of nuclear disarmament process.
The DPRK’s response will depend on whether the US withdraws its hostile policy toward the DPRK or not.
Mr. President,
This year marks the seventy years since the Korean nation was divided by the outside forces.
In those decades the world has made a tremendous advance and the times have undergone dramatic changes, but the Korean nation has not yet achieved reunification, suffering from the pain of division.
As long as Korea remains divided, lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula and the regional security cannot be ensured.
When Korea is reunified, it will definitely constitute a fulfillment of the national desire as well as a decisive contribution to the peace and security of the Korean Peninsula and moreover the Northeast Asia where the interests of big powers clash one another.
The respected leader KIM JONG UN, First Chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, has underscored in his new year’s address that the north and the south should achieve great national unity true to the principle of By Our Nation Itself to satisfactorily resolve the reunification issue in conformity with the common interests of the nation.
The policy goal of the DPRK government to achieve the national desire of reunification and the mandate of the CD have common ground in the sense of both promoting international peace and security.
The DPRK will not spare its sincere efforts to bring about great change in inter-Korean relations this year.
In concluding my statement, Mr. President, the government of the DPRK reiterates that it will make contribution to the actual progress of the CD this year, believing that the CD will pay due attention to the developments of the Korean Peninsula and give support for the efforts to ease the tension therein.
Thank you.
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A related speech in Geneva on March 3, 2015
Statement by H.E. Mr. RI SU YONG, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
During the High-level Segment of the 28th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council
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Mr. President,
It is my pleasure to participate in the High-level Segment of the United NationsHuman Rights Council (UNHRC) and deliver this statement.
Today the necessity to handle the human rights issue in a more correct and impartialway is ever increasing and the reality presents new important tasks to the UNHRC.
I am confident that my clarification at this forum of the principled stand and views of the DPRK government concerning the human rights issue will be of help to the work of the current session of the UNHRC.
Mr. President,
Last year, at the session of the UNHRC, a “resolution” on the human rights situation in the DPRK was forcibly adopted to cause an international controversy.
Developments of the situation after the adoption of the “resolution” cast increasing doubts on the authenticity of the allegation by some countries of the “wide-spread” human rights violation in the DPRK.
While the “evidences” that support their allegation are being proven to be false, the ones proving that their anti-DPRK human rights racket is politically motivated are becoming ever clearer with the passage of time.
This shows that the “human rights issue” of our country lost its original meaning of the concept and has now turned into another political agenda at international human rights arena, which has become extremely politicized today.
The actual human rights situation of the DPRK has been illustrated in detail in the official document of the UNGA and UNSC as contained in A/69/383-S/2014/668.
The problem is that the countries hostile towards the DPRK and their followerspursue a biased approach when it comes to the actual human rights situation of the DPRK, not interested in the truth of the reality.
I do not feel the need to give a lengthy explanation about it, but refer to one fact at this opportunity.
When the socialist systems collapsed at a sweep in several European countries in the late 1980s and early 1990s, many people had predicted that the socialist system in the DPRK would not last long.
However, after a quarter of a century since then, the world is witnessing the socialist system as vigorous as ever in the DPRK.
The past 25 years of the DPRK were not easy and peaceful times. Those were years of hardships in which we suffered two great national mourning, series of extreme natural disasters and political and economic damages caused by the collapse of the socialist market, and the entire country had to tighten belts due to the constant nuclear threat and sanctions by the “only super power” hostile towards us.
The world has witnessed however the socialist system in the DPRK getting ever stronger by braving the overlapping unprecedentedly severe trials which might have affected other countries to a collapse hundred times and more.
Many people describe this as a miracle and many academics and experts around the world compete to solve this puzzle. In fact, the answer is simple and clear.
The people-centered socialism that serves the people enjoys the eternal vitality.
There is a saying that the practice is the norm of truth.
If there were “wide-spread human rights violations” in the DPRK as some countries insist and propagate, how would such a social system enjoy the support from the popular masses and how could it have firmly withstood such a long period of severe adversities.
The world history shows that a social system which lost popular masses’ confidence and support can not last long no matter how hard one tries to maintain it through coercive measures.
In our country, the slogans “We Serve the People!” and “Everything for the Popular Masses and Everything by Relying on the Popular Masses!” are the motto of the leader and cornerstone of all government policies.
This will be difficult to understand for people who live in different system, especially so for those who have hostile views on our country.
Those hostile towards us like to talk about the principle of democracy that the needs of the majority outweigh the needs of the minority but they intentionally turn away from the truth that the socialist system of the DPRK is chosen by the popular masses that make up the majority of the population.
They do not even try to understand why in our country every ordinary people, regardless of age and gender, writhe at the loss of their leader, blocking the path for the hearse and why they are in tears jumping with joy whenever their leader visits their factories, farms, fish farms and military posts.
Those hostile towards us cannot understand the ties of blood between the leader and the popular masses and the world of single-minded unity that can be found only in the DPRK.
If they insist that human rights violation is “wide-spread” in such a country, the question is what is their concept of human rights and for whom it really serves.
The hard fact that the people-centered socialist system stands strong in our country today speaks for itself whether or not there is a “wide-spread human rights violation” in the DPRK.
As far as the human rights situation in our country is concerned, the hostile forces are only interested to hear from such scum of mankind as the so-called “defectors from the north” who fled abandoning their parents, wives and children after committing crimes at home.
It is obvious that the moment one illegally departs from the motherland, the person is turned into an adversary to the motherland.
Moreover, for escaped criminals, there is no other way to keep their lives than denying and slandering everything of the motherland to meet the tastes of the forces hostile towards it.
The act of cooking up “the Report of the Commission of Inquiry” based on lies of a few such criminals is itself a misdeed which is completely against the aspiration of the UN for civilization and rule of law.
It is exactly what happened at the UNHCR and subsequently at the UNGA and the UNSC last year and such a wicked act was loudly termed as a “great discovery”.
However, the core testimonies that became the basis of “the Report of the Commission of Inquiry” were proven to be false recently and thus the falsehood of the “human rights resolutions” against the DPRK adopted at the UNHRC and the UNGA was fully revealed.
In any court, a ruling based on false testimony is to be nullified.
It is claimed that the ‘Report of the Commission of Inquiry’ is also based on testimonies by other “defectors from north”, but in any country’s court “anonymous testimony” does not have any legal effect.
Therefore, the anti-DPRK “resolutions” based on the above-mentioned “Report” should be revoked immediately without delay.
Mr. President,
Human rights are the noble concept symbolizing the dignity of human beings.
In whatever cases, human rights issues should not be abused for political purposes or be used as a tool for international politics.
At present, the biggest hurdle for the international cooperation in the field of human rights is the abuse of human rights issue for political purposes.
The most typical examples of such abuses are found in using human rights issues to bring down the social and political systems of certain countries.
During the Cold War period, the U.S. came to realize that there would be no winner in a nuclear war. Hence they made a shift to the strategy of peaceful transition and started to bring forward the human rights issue in real earnest. This is a well-known fact.
It is the stereotyped method of the U.S. which is still being used today to smear the countries disobedient to it and demonize them in the eyes of the international community with the ultimate purpose of effecting regime change and bringing down their social system.
As the DPRK remarkably strengthened its war deterrent, the US, realizing that their power politics would not work, started to desperately cling to the anti-DPRK human rights racket particularly since last year.
If the US and its followers were really concerned about the human rights issue, they would not have ignored our willingness for cooperation in the field of human rights we expressed last year.
However, as they started all this with certain political purposes from the verybeginning, they dismissed all the opportunities for cooperation and opted for the way of confrontation in which they railroaded the anti-DPRK “resolution” at the UNGA.
Recently the U.S. and its followers often convene gatherings of various forms to discuss the “human rights issue” of our country in different parts of the world denying our legitimate request for participation as the party concerned. This proves itself that those, afraid of the truth, opt to scheme the “human rights” plot against the DPRK.
Such policy of the U.S. is not the first of its kind.
It is only an extension of the U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK pursued since the dawn of the Cold War by which they turned the Korean peninsula into a theatre of confrontation between socialism and capitalism in Asia while they chose Germany for the same purpose in Europe. To this end, they poured an astronomical amount of money into south Korea, while, at the same time, seeking to bring down the social system of the north by all evil methods including isolation, stifling, blockade, suffocation, threat, blackmail and pressure.
Any attempt to overthrow the social system chosen by the people of a country for the reason that the people do not share the same ideology and belief with them is, in itself, an act of violating the human rights and insulting the dignity of the people.
We are open to candid dialogue and cooperation in the field of human rights with whoever is truly concerned with human rights issue and wishes to discuss it on the basis of respect for the sovereignty of our country and views of our people.
It is our policy not to confine our efforts to the protection of human rights of our people but to promote them steadily, and for that we wish to cooperate with the rest of the world.
However, it is our consistent stand not to tolerate the least, but to take strong countermeasures against any acts which pursue political purposes negating the will and aspirations of our people.
Mr. President,
Another major obstacle to the international cooperation in the field of human rights is the practice of selectivity and double standards.
The UNHCR should be highly alert to such practices in order to creditably fulfill its mandate to promote the international cooperation in the field of human rights.
Currently, the UN arena is often being misused as a venue where certain powers rally their followers to selectively pick and torment the countries standing up to them.
If such practices are allowed to go on, the genuine cooperation in the field of human rights will vanish, which, in turn, will result in reducing of the UN arena into a theatre of political frauds and confrontation.
Selectivity is accompanied by double standards.
Recently, atrocious acts of torture systematically conducted by the US government agency have been revealed shocking the whole world. However this issue has not been submitted on the table of the UN.
That is because the European countries fond of raising individual country’s human rights issue remained silent.
In the US racial discrimination has reached an extreme phase entailing serious consequences, but its allies do not say a word about it.
Such practices which hamper the international efforts to protect and promote human rights should no longer be tolerated.
The UNHCR must address the issue of brutal torture crimes by the U.S. as an emergency agenda, thus putting an end to the practice of selectivity and double standards in human rights issue.
We believe that the interference in other country’s internal affairs, use of and threats by armed forces and economic sanctions and blockade against them constitute wanton violations of human rights of the peoples of the countries.
The UNHRC should direct greater attention to such human rights issues as generallyrecognized at international level and seek appropriate actions rather than the human rights situations in the specifically selected countries.
In order to properly fulfill its mission, the UNHRC must maintain impartiality as its mainstay like all the other international organizations.
The impartiality of the UNHRC will be judged by how it deals with the issue of an individual official acting under the UN name who made psychopathic and reckless political remarks that the leadership of a dignified sovereign member state of the UN must be changed. We will be closely watching.
It is everyone’s wonder that if the UN agency which deals with human rights loses its impartiality how many countries or people would bother to come or make an appeal to it in the future.
We will also come to question the necessity to participate in the meeting of such an agency.
The DPRK will firmly safeguard the national sovereignty to thoroughly protect the human rights of our people from the infringement by the hostile forces and contribute to the global solution of the human rights issue by further developing the socialist system that serves for the popular masses.
Thank you.