Ri Yong Ho’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly was marked by frequent condemnations of USA policy and U.N. sanctions against North Korea, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.
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Eric Heginbotham and Richard Samuels said that as part of a set of incentives to China, Washington “might also agree, after consulting South Korea, to withdraw THAAD from the peninsula when North Korean nuclear weapons no longer pose a threat”.
But blame for the “root cause” of the crisis lies with the United States, he added, railing again against US-South Korea military exercises held twice this year.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged North Korea on Friday to abandon its nuclear and missile programs.
“I believe it is high time to seriously reconsider whether North Korea is qualified as a peace-loving United Nations member”, he said in his address on Thursday.
North Korea has come under heavy global condemnation, including China, for its fifth and what it claims as the “largest” nuclear test on 9 September.
“The worldwide system is being exploited by (North Korea). for the objective of pursuing an illegal nuclear and missiles program that threatens both its neighbours and regional peace and security”, the senior U.S. diplomat added. After the latest blast on September 9, Pyongyang claimed it had significantly advanced its ability and tested a miniaturized nuclear bomb for a warhead that could be mounted on a missile. Asked whether THAAD was negotiable, Daniel Russel, the US assistant secretary of state for East Asia, referred to a US-South Korean agreement on the deployment. “No”.
Kerry also vowed that the United States would defend its own citizens against the North Korean threat and honor its security commitments to its allies.
Ri dismissed the Security Council resolutions as unfair.
China, whose full backing is widely seen as crucial for sanctions on North Korea to be effective, is strongly opposed to the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system and some experts have argued it should be part of talks on new United Nations measures.
“The recent actions by the DPRK that violate U.N. Security Council resolutions must be halted”. “South Korea has a general idea and plan to use precision missile capabilities to target the enemy’s facilities in major areas as well as eliminating the enemy’s leadership”. “It demands a new means of addressing it, altogether different from what we applied until yesterday”.
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North Korea’s membership in the United Nations – the only major global forum where Pyongyang has a voice – dates back 35 years to when the two Koreas were admitted simultaneously.
