UN Security Council to discuss N. Korean issues amid rising US-N. Korea tensions

Dec 11, 2019, 09:30 am

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The U.N. Security Council will meet on Wednesday, at the request of the United States, over missile launches by North Korea and the possibility of an escalatory provocation, Reuters reported Monday. In addition, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric urged North Korea on Monday to engage in dialogue with the United States. The photo shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump shaking hands at the conclusion of their meetings at the Capella resort on Sentosa Island on June 12, 2018 in Singapore./ Source: Singapore AP=Yonhap News

By Washington correspondent Ha Man-joo

The United Nations has emerged as a forum to discuss North Korean issues with Pyongyang’s year-end deadline on a ‘new calculation method’ rapidly approaching and tensions between the United States and North Korea escalating.

The U.N. Security Council will meet on Wednesday, at the request of the United States, over missile launches by North Korea and the possibility of an escalatory provocation, Reuters reported Monday. In addition, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric urged North Korea on Monday to engage in dialogue with the United States.

“The State Department is instructing the U.S. mission to the United Nations to propose to have the UN Security Council discussion on North Korea this week include a comprehensive update on recent developments on the Korean Peninsula, including recent missile launches and the possibility of an escalatory DPRK provocation,” a spokesman for the US State Department said.

While the European members of the council had been pushing for a Tuesday meeting on human rights abuses in North Korea, the president of the Security Council for December decided to convene the meeting on Wednesday.

The United States, which seemed reluctant to participate in human rights talks at the beginning, rescheduled the date and theme of the meeting since the Trump administration believes North Korea’s provocations are recently getting serious. North Korea announced Sunday it carried out a “very important” test at its Sohae Satellite Launching Station a day prior, raising speculation that it may have tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) engine. If such issues are discussed in the Security Council, the U.S.-North Korea relations is likely to worsen and even lead to North Korea’s nuclear and ICBM threats and the United States’ strengthened sanctions on the North.

The state of the U.S.-North Korea relations could return to 2017, where tensions reached at its peak with ”fire and fury” and “nuclear button” disputes.

Trump warned that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had “everything” to lose through hostility towards Washington. In response, Kim Yong-chol, Chairman of the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, called Trump a “heedless and erratic old man,” while Ri Su-yong, Vice-Chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, warned the US President to stop his “rude talk” towards North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Amid rising tensions between the two countries, Dujarric said that the world body is repeating Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s calls on North Korea to cooperate for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and to resume working-level negotiations with Washington.

#UN Security Council #Stephane Dujarric #North Korea #United States