The talks come a day after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appeared to claim that his country had developed a hydrogen bomb, which is more powerful than an atomic bomb, although experts and USA and South Korean officials expressed doubt that the North has such capability.
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The comments were carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Samantha Power, told the council that the North’s abuses represented a “level of horror unrivalled in the world”.
Park has repeatedly talked up the prospect of eventual Korean re-unification, but has offered little in terms of policy to ease tensions with the perennially belligerent North.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein testified before the Security Council after permanent members China and Russian Federation attempted unsuccessfully to block the meeting on procedural grounds.
Elsewhere, North Korea was facing pressure for its allegedly widespread human rights violations.
North Korea is critical of the annual military drills between South Korea and the United States, calling them rehearsals for war.
Seoul wants the North to agree to more frequent reunions between North and South Koreans separated by the two countries’ 1950s conflict.
Like the South’s representative mentioned, multiple issues are expected to be debated and it was Seoul that proposed NOT to limit the agendas on the table.
Nilsson-Wright said such claims were typically made in an “attention-grabbing effort to assert North Korean autonomy and his own political authority” and “enhance its negotiating position with other countries”.
“We hope that the various pending issues can be smoothly discussed through consultations”, said Vice Unification Minister Hwang Boo-gi, who is heading the South Korean delegation.
After all, his regime is known for its secrecy as well as nuclear ambitions which he further hinted when he disclosed the ownership of a hydrogen bomb.
“I think it’s unlikely that they have an H-bomb at the moment, but I don’t expect them to keep testing basic devices indefinitely, either”, says Jeffrey Lewis, an arms control at the Midlebury Institute of International Studies to Vice News.
Should the Supreme Leader’s remarks turn out to be true, it would mark a significant progress in North Korea’s nuclear capabilities.
The North is now under United Nations sanctions banning nuclear tests and missile launches.
The New York Times notes a state-run newspaper claimed in 2010 the country was in the middle of developing the technology.
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However, any such device it might be working on would be cruder and more old-fashioned than the classical H-bomb and would require larger nuclear tests than North Korea has yet conducted. (We will) do our best to resolve each issue one-by-one, step-by-step.
