In a gesture that angered Western powers, the North Korean government assumed the presidency of the UN Conference on Disarmament this week. Koreans, one of the world’s most isolated countries and accused of illegally developing nuclear weapons, will hold the presidency by the end of the month.
The 65-member UN body encourages a rotation between countries for everyone to occupy the presidency of studies. In the past, Bashar al-Assad’s Syria was already in office. In 2013, Iran also chaired the conference.
However, the arrival of the North Koreans in charge angered Europeans and Americans. The country violated UN Security Council resolutions and is suspected of conducting its first nuclear test since 2017 in 2022. Other missile tests have also been carried out in recent months.
After taking office, the North Korean delegation made no reference to violations. Ambassador Han Tae Song said, “North Korea is committed to contributing to global peace and disarmament and attaches great importance to the work of the conference.” said.
Activists from more than 40 organizations pressured Western governments to withdraw from the chamber. But the choice made by the countries was to send only lower-ranking diplomats, without ambassadors. For NGOs, the North Korean regime presiding over the issue of disarmament was equivalent to “a rapist running a women’s shelter.”
“We must remember that all these weapons of mass destruction in North Korea are not for millions of starving and oppressed people. It is up to the regime to protect the darkest and most totalitarian systems of the 21st century,” North Korea and North Korea said. human rights activist Timothy Cho currently lives in the UK.
“North Korea does not have the qualifications to preside over a UN-sponsored conference because it has completely abandoned the state’s primary responsibility to protect its own citizens from starvation and abuse,” Cho said.
“North Korean leaders have been committing crimes against humanity, hunger, oppression, cruelty, imprisonment, torture, execution, forced abortion, enforced disappearance and punishment for three generations,” he said. “North Korea’s human rights abuses make it a ‘unique state’ in the contemporary world, according to the conclusion of the 2014 UN Commission of Inquiry report.”
source: Noticias
