Full
text of the speech of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea Ri Yong Ho at the General Debate of the 72nd
Session of the United Nations General Assembly, New York, 23rd
September 2017.
Mr. President,
First of all, allow me to congratulate Your Excellency Mr. Miroslav Lajcak on your election as the President of the 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
I look forward to successful outcome of the present session under your able guidance.
Before
going into the main points in my debate, I feel forced to make comments
on the speech uttered 4 days ago by someone called the U.S. president
that rendered this sacred UN arena tainted.
Since
Trump uttered such reckless and violent words provoking the supreme
dignity of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) at this very
platform, I think it is fair enough for me to make a response in the
corresponding tone.
During
his 8 months in power, he has turned the White House into a noisy
marketing place full of crackling sounds of abacus beads and now he has
tried to turn the UN arena into a gangsters’ nest where money is
respected and bloodshed is the order of the day.
The
absurd reality that the person like Trump, a mentally deranged person
full of megalomania and complacency, the person who is chastised even by
American people as “Commander in Grief, “Lyin King”, “President Evil”
is holding the seat of the U.S. President, and the dangerous reality
that the gambler who grew old using threats, frauds and all other
schemes to acquire a patch of land holds the nuclear button; these are
what constitute the gravest threat to the international peace and security today.
Due
to his lacking of basic common knowledge and proper sentiment, he tried
to insult the supreme dignity of my country by referring it to a
rocket. By doing so, however, he committed an irreversible mistake of
making our rockets’ visit to the entire U.S. mainland inevitable all the
more.
None other than Trump himself is on a suicide mission.
In case innocent lives of the U.S. are lost because of this suicide attack. Trump will be held totally responsible.
The respected supreme leader Comrade Kim Jong Un
stated : as a man representing the DPRX and on behalf of the dignity
and honor of my state and people and on my own, I will make the man
holding the prerogative of the supreme command in the U.S. pay dearly
for his speech calling for totally destroying the DPRK.
Trump
might not have been aware what is uttered from his mouth but we will
make sure that he bears consequences far beyond his words, far beyond
the scope of what he can handle even if he is ready to do so.
Mr. President,
Focusing
on people: striving for peace and a decent life for all on a
sustainable planet; this is the theme of the current session.
For
all countries and people to enjoy peace and a decent life, it is
imperative to realize genuine international justice before anything
else.
Realizing international justice is one of the main missions of the United Nations.
Mr. President,
Article
1 of the Charter of the United Nations stipulates “to bring about by
peaceful means and in conformity with the principles of justice and
international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or
situations which might lead to a breach of the peace”.
Due
to high-handedness and arbitrariness of one particular big power
however, at present the purpose and principles of the UN Charter and
other established basic principles of international relations are now
wantonly ignored in the UN arena.
Abnormal
acts of justifying and legitimizing high-handedness and arbitrariness
and the acts of violating truth and justice are connived at or
tolerated. The most rampant violation of international justice can be
seen on the Korean peninsula.
Unprecedented
acts of injustice such as imposing harsh sanctions on a victim for the
reason that the victim chose to stand up to the offender are openly
committed in the name of the UN.
The
essence of the situation of the Korean peninsula is a confrontation
between the DPRK and the U.S. where the former tries to defend its
national dignity and sovereignty against the latter’s hostile policy and
nuclear threats.
The
United States is the country that first produced nuclear weapons and
the only country that actually used it, massacring hundreds of thousands
of innocent civilians.
It
is the U.S. that threatened to use nuclear weapon against the DPRK
during the Korean War in 1950s and first introduced nuclear weapons into
the Korean peninsula after the war.
The
U.S. started large-scale joint military exercises against the DPRK
during the Cold War period and further increased their scope and
aggressive nature after the Cold War, staging the exercises several
times a year by mobilizing more of nuclear strategic assets.
What
else could be a bigger threat than the violent remarks such as pouring
“fire and fury”, “total destruction” coming from the top authority of
the world’s biggest nuclear power.
The
very reason the DPRK had to possess nuclear weapons is because of the
U.S. and it had to strengthen and develop its nuclear force onto the
current level to cope with the U.S.
The
U.S. hostile policy and nuclear threats have continued over 70 years
and these have led the situation on the Korean peninsula to a
touch-and-go point. But in the United Nations, unjustifiable resolutions
which illegalize justice as injustice are randomly adopted due to the
high-handedness of,the U.S.
The
respected Supreme Leader Comrade Kim Jong Un, chairman of the State
Affairs Commission of,the DPRK said: International justice is never
achieved by itself; it can only be achieved when the anti-imperialist
independent countries are strong enough.
Unless
true international justice is realized, the only valid philosophical
principle is that force must be dealt with force and nuclear weapons of
tyranny must be dealt with nuclear hammer of justice.
The
possession of nuclear deterrence by the DPRK is a righteous
self-defensive measure taken as an ultimate option, pursuant to this
principle.
Recently,
the DPRK has successfully conducted ICBM-mountable H-bomb test as a
part of the efforts to achieve the goal of completing the state nuclear
force.
With
this, the DPRK has entered a phase of completing the state nuclear
force in accordance with its line of simultaneous development of the
economy and the nuclear force.
Our
national nuclear force is, to all intents and purposes, a war deterrent
for putting an end to nuclear threat of the U.S. and for preventing its
military invasion; and our ultimate goal is to establish the balance of
power with the U.S.
Distinguished
delegates of all countries attending this session are aware of the fact
that the DPRK, unlike other nuclear weapon states, made public every
time to the world the test process and its result in all stages of the
development and advancement of its nuclear force.
Since
the war deterrent for safeguarding peace and security of the Korean
peninsula and the region is strengthened enough, the United States and
its followers must now think twice before launching military provocation
against the DPRK.
Although
they talk about “fire and fury”, “total destruction” and whatever,
every time they have to add various conditions such as “hopefully this
will not be necessary”, “that is not our first option” and so on.
Accordingly,
we are convinced that peace and security of the northeast Asia and the
region as a whole have been as much consolidated.
We do not need anyone’s recognition of our status as a nuclear weapon state and our capability of nuclear strike.
The
ICBM marked with sacred name of the DPRK flew over the universe above
the endless blue sky, the warhead of our rocket left its trace on the
blue waves of the Pacific Ocean and the tremendous explosion and
vibration of the hydrogen bomb were recorded by this planet.
Although
our decision to possess nuclear weapons was an inevitable option forced
by the United States, it resulted in our country achieving the status
of a nuclear weapon state and a rocket power, and this prestige has now
become an immortal destiny of the DPRK.
Mr. President,
The
failure of the United Nations in fulfilling its role in realizing
genuine international justice is primarily related to the undemocratic
old practices of the Security Council.
It
is none other than the Security Council which disregards the UN Charter
from the very first Article and only acts in pursuit of the will and
interest of its permanent member states.
It
is not incidental that the issue on reform of the Security Council had
already been decided in 1992 by resolution 47/62 at the 47th Session of
UNGA.
Since
then, the UNSC reform issue has been discussed at UNGA every year
during the past 25 years but without any progress at all. This fact
itself clearly shows how deeply the current permanent members are
obsessed in their anachronistic vested interests.
One
permanent member alone can veto the general will of over 190 UN member
states. Such an undemocratic UN organ is the Security Council.
At
this forum, I would like to once again remind all the distinguished
delegates of the unjust and unfair nature of the “resolutions” adopted
by the Security Council against the DPRK.
First,
the Security Council fabricated illegal and double-standard
“resolutions” which only prohibit the satellite launch of the DPRK in
violation of the international law prescribing peaceful use of outer
space as a sovereign right of every state and without taking any issue
with all other satellite launching countries.
Second,
the Security Council cooked up illegal and double-standard
“resolutions” which arbitrarily prohibit only the nuclear tests of the
DPRK, although nuclear test strictly belongs to the sovereignty of every
state since the international law on prohibition of nuclear test has
not yet entered into force and there are countries that conducted many
more nuclear tests.
Third,
the Security Council condemned the development of nuclear weapons by
the DPRK as a “threat to international peace and security” and, on that
basis, fabricated illegal and double-standard “resolutions” in
contravention of Article 51 of the UN Charter which recognizes the right
to self-defense of every state and without calling into question the
other countries that keep on developing latest nuclear weapons of
various kinds.
The
reason these unjust and unfair resolutions continue to be adopted is
that the permanent members of the Security Council, all nuclear powers,
have common interest in maintaining their monopolistic nuclear status.
The
permanent members of UNSC are talking much about non-proliferation of
nuclear weapons. Viewed from the aspect of nuclear non-proliferation,
the DPRK’s possession of nuclear weapons is a righteous self-defensive
measure.
Actually,
the international agreement on nuclear non-proliferation was possible
because the nuclear weapon states had made the promise not to threaten
non-nuclear weapon states with the nuclear weapons.
Article
10 of NPT stipulates that each Party shall have the right to withdraw
from the Treaty if it decides that its supreme interests have been
jeopardized. This Article recognizes that supreme interests ofstates are
above the nuclear non-proliferation.
After
all, the U.S. itself impeded the international efforts for nuclear
non-proliferation by not giving up the nuclear threat against the DPRK,
but rather compelling the latter to possess nuclear weapons.
This
eloquently shows that the anti-DPRK “resolutions” are not based on any
established principles and that they are nothing less than the products
of undemocratic old practice of the Security Council and the conspiracy
and collusion of the forces obsessed only in their vested interests.
The
U.S. claims that the DPRK’s possession of H-bomb and ICBM constitutes a
“global threat” even at the UN arena. But such claim is a big lie which
is just tantamount to the notorious “big lie” faked up by the U.S. in
2003 about the existence in Iraq of weapons of mass destruction in order
to invade that country.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is a responsible nuclear weapon state.
We
will take preventive measures by merciless preemptive action in case
the U.S. and its vassal forces show any sign of conducting a kind of
“decapitating” operation on our headquarters or military attack against
our country. However, we do not have any intention at all to use or
threaten to use nuclear weapons against the countries that do not join
in the U.S. military actions against the DPRK.
The
U.S. is resorting to an intrigue of condemning the DPRK’s nuclear
possession as “a global threat” in order to find a pretext for coercing
other UN member states into implementing the anti-DPRK “sanctions
resolutions”.
This
is a sneaky and selfish attempt by the U.S. to avoid its responsibility
for the nuclear issue of the Korean peninsula and to pursue its own
interests by using and sacrificing other countries that have nothing to
do with the issue.
The
government of the DPRK made a request to the UN Secretariat that a
forum of international law experts be organized to assess legal grounds
and lawfulness of the UNSC “resolutions”, but we have not heard anything
from the Secretariat for 9 months already.
Same
is true of the fact that the DPRK made repeated requests to the UNSC to
discuss the serious threat to international peace and security posed by
the aggressive and provocative U.S.-south Korea large-scale joint
military exercises, but these requests were never put on the UNSC
agenda, rather turned down every time.
The UN Charter stipulates that the members of the United Nations accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council.
If
the “resolutions” on the DPRK adopted at the Security Council are truly
lawful and fair, there will be no need that all U.S. ambassadors abroad
and even the President and the State Secretary turn out to coerce other
countries into implementing the “resolutions”. Furthermore, there will
be no need for the U.S. to bring its stooges like south Korea and Japan
into this.
The
UN member states should not yield in to pressure of an individual big
power in dealing with the UNSC resolutions but make an independent
judgment on lawfulness, impartiality and morality of the resolutions and
contribute to promoting reform of the UNSC by further raising their
voices against high-handedness and arbitrariness.
Mr. President,
The
U.S. had put sanctions against our country from the very first day of
its foundation and the over 70-year long history of the DPRK can be said
in a sense a history of struggle, persevering along the road of
self-development under the harshest sanctions in the world.
Through
such a prolonged and arduous struggle, now we are finally only a few
steps away from the final gate of completion of the state nuclear force.
It is only a forlorn hope to consider any chance that the DPRK would be
shaken an inch or change its stance due to the harsher sanctions by the
hostile forces.
The
day will certainly come in near future when we settle all damages
inflicted to our peaceful economic development and improvement of the
people’s livelihood and all the sufferings imposed on our innocent
women, children and elderly by the heinous and barbaric sanctions
against our Republic.
The
DPRK already organized a national damage investigation committee to
make comprehensive study of total damages inflicted on our Republic by
all kinds of sanctions.
This
committee will thoroughly investigate and compile all physical and
moral damages imposed upon the DPRK by the U.S., its followers and also
those countries that submitted to the U.S. coercion.
When
this racket of sanctions and pressure reaches a critical point, thus
driving the Korean peninsula into an uncontrollable situation,
investigation results of this committee will have a huge effect in
holding those accountable.
Mr. President,
My
delegation takes this opportunity to extend strong support to and
solidarity with the Cuban government and people who are fighting to
defend national sovereignty and realize international justice against
the high-handedness, arbitrariness and unilateral embargo of the U.S.
We
also express strong support to and solidarity with the government and
people of Venezuela who are fighting to defend the national sovereignty
and the cause of socialism.
The
unjust and contemptible acts such as turning a blind eye to the heinous
acts of Israel while condemning in every manner only the Syrian
government fighting to protect its national sovereignty and security
should not be tolerated any longer.
The
DPRK government will certainly defend peace and security of the country
with its powerful nuclear deterrence and also contribute to
safeguarding world peace and security.
Thank you, Mr. President
