Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at a UN Security Council Briefing on the situation on the Korean Peninsula
Mr. President,
We welcome the participation in today’s meeting of the Permanent Representative of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (the DPRK).
We’ve listened to the briefing by Assistant Secretary-General Khaled Khiari. We regret that once again we’ve heard neither a comprehensive analysis of the situation on the Korean peninsula, nor any constructive proposals to redress the situation, nor any balanced impartial assessments, as required by Article 100 of the UN Charter.
Time and again, when convening meetings on each missile launch by the DPRK, Western delegations repeat the same hackneyed arguments, pinning full responsibility on Pyongyang, whereas the military provocations by Washington, Seoul and Tokyo are obstinately overlooked. As before, those who initiate such meetings solely intend to create negative buzz around the DPRK – they are looking to keep the obsolete sanctions measures afloat and justify the aggressive steps undertaken by the US and its allies in the region. Just let that sink in: the UN Security Council, with its unique mandate for the maintenance of peace and security, is being used not to develop sound political solutions but rather as a tool for propaganda and political score-settling. This is not what the founders of the United Nations would have wished to see, and this is not what the international community expects from the Security Council today.
Against this background, the assertions of certain Security Council members in this chamber about their concern for the plight and the fate of North Koreans, and their alleged desire to see a prosperous DPRK with happy people appear to be uniquely hypocritical. What you are dreaming about is muzzling the people. And you have been muzzling them for years already.
Against this background, the DPRK leadership has every right to apply measures to ensure the security and uphold the sovereignty of the country. Let us recall that following the launch of a hypersonic missile on January 6, the country's leader Kim Jong-Un (who, by the way, has birthday today – and we congratulate our North Korean friends on his birthday), stated that the DPRK's military build-up is geared towards enhancing the country's self-defense and in no way towards carrying out any offensive operations.
Mr. President,
The imminent departure of the Biden administration from the White House provides a good opportunity for us to consider the results of its four-year policy on the Korean peninsula. The assessment will be unnerving. Contradictions between North and South are at their peak, including at the constitutional and institutional levels. Dialogue at the highest level has been frozen with no visible prospects for resumption. The peninsula remains subject to large-scale militarization with the use of American nuclear capabilities. Bloc mindset has prevailed in the region, which is driving a deep wedge between neighboring countries.
What has become a stark manifestation of the aggressive policy undertaken by Pyongyang's adversaries is the recent joint military exercises near the DPRK's borders. From one-off joint maneuvers in response to missile launches, these exercises have evolved into regular large-scale operations with the use of aircraft carriers, destroyers, bombers and latest-generation fighters of the three countries. No matter what those who provoke instability in the region may state – be it Washington, Tokyo or Seoul – one thing is clear: UN Security Council resolutions on the Korean settlement stipulate that the peninsula's problems should be resolved exclusively by peaceful, diplomatic and political means. And this implies that their practice of pumping weapons into the region and their more frequent military maneuvers are nothing but systematic violations of international law. Once again today, we have heard their mantras that allegedly they did not provoke anything and are not provoking anything, but that is not true. The fact that this was a planned policy is likely to be casually acknowledged later by some American official in some interview. Just as Antony Blinken did a few days ago – he has always compelled everybody to speak of the unprovoked nature of the Russian special military operation, but the other day he acknowledged that the United States had been pumping weapons into Ukraine long before our military operation began.
The statements by the outgoing US Secretary of State on the transfer of Russian satellite and space technologies to the DPRK (made during his visit to Seoul on January 6 and reiterated today by a number of delegations) are wholly unsubstantiated. These are nothing but yet another baseless speculation geared towards tarnishing bilateral cooperation between Russia and the friendly nation of the DPRK.
The Strategic Partnership Treaty between Russia and the DPRK (recently ratified by our country) has Article 4, whereby States undertake to support each other in the event of an armed attack against one of the parties. This provision is fully in line with the UN Charter. Any measures that could be applied under this article are an internal matter pertinent exclusively to Russia-North Korea bilateral relations.
Cooperation between Russia and the DPRK is designed to play a stabilizing role in the region on the basis of the principle of indivisibility of security and to reduce the risk of the peninsula relapsing into war, including with the use of nuclear means; thus, it is supposed to become one of the components of a robust security architecture in the region.
Mr. President,
We regret that our longstanding friends and partners in Seoul are rapidly losing their independence under pressure from Washington. By embracing the path of blindly yielding to American interests, they are depriving themselves of opportunities to restore peace and trust in the region. In recent weeks, the situation in the Republic of Korea itself has become a factor of instability which is liable to spark an armed confrontation. As it has become clear from “leaks” in the media, the current leadership of the country deliberately sought to trigger a sharp escalation of tensions on the peninsula in order to prop up their political positions within the country. To this end, they sent drones to the DPRK with the view to provoking a harsh response from Pyongyang. If this is indeed the case, then it is Seoul's actions that are the source of the utmost concern.
In conclusion, we wish to note that if those who initiated today’s meeting really wish to break the dangerous stalemate rather than exacerbating it, they would be well-advised to fundamentally reconsider their approaches. The path to normalization lies through forging mutually respectful dialogue, ensuring security guarantees and abandoning the logic of collective punishment through sanctions. The relevant proposals have been repeatedly set out in this chamber by Russia and China.
The US continues to respond to the relevant initiatives with a flat refusal. However, the West's failed policy on the Korean peninsula attests to the fact that there are no real alternatives to those initiatives. And the sooner this understanding prevails at the Security Council, the sooner we will be able to positively influence developments in the region.
Thank you.
