DPRK Foreign Minister Makes Statement at ASEAN Regional Forum

Pyongyang, July 27 (KCNA) -- DPRK Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, head of the DPRK delegation, made a statement at the ASEAN Regional Forum held in Vientiane, Laos on Tuesday. He said that with the danger of conflicts becoming ever more materialized in the Korean peninsula, the overall situation in the Northeast Asia can be characterized to be in extremely high level of tension. He went on: I firmly believe that it might help the discussion of this meeting to inform the overall view and position of the DPRK regarding the core substance of the situation of Korean peninsula. The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, in the historic 7th Congress of the Worker's Party of Korea (WPK), last May, presented the five-year strategy for national economic development. The objective of this strategy is to lay the foundations of sustainable economic development by reenergizing the overall sectors of national economy and drastically improve the people's living standards. During the party congress, the Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, Chairman of the WPK, presented also the Juche-oriented line of the reunification of the fatherland by proposing to realize the federal-style national reunification holding fast the banner of national independence. As the immediate task and means, were proposed easing of the state of military confrontation between the north and south and addressing all the issues through dialogue and negotiation. Accordingly, the DPRK embarked on the implementation of the five-year strategy for national economic development and is making every effort to improve the north and south relations through dialogue and negotiation. All these efforts are in desperate need of peace and peaceful environment in the Korean peninsula as their crucial preconditions. But the situation turned out different. Military threats against the DPRK are increasing unprecedentedly. The strategic assets of the United States such as nuclear bombers and submarines, and the THAAD continue to be deployed in the Korean peninsula. The dark clouds to be formulated in the August are coming again, after the critical situation of last March and April created due to the large scale US-south Korea joint military exercises went through. Nobody can predict what kind of crisis the notorious "Ulji Freedom Guardian" joint military exercises can bring about this time. The attempt of the US to pursue hostile economic sanctions against the DPRK is another factor increasing tension. We know that pressure is being imposed upon all the foreign ministers present here for the implementation of the so called "sanctions resolutions" of the UN Security Council against the DPRK. We already looked forward to all the possible sanctions to come, before making an inevitable strategic decision that there is no other option but facing with nuclear deterrent the never ending nuclear blackmails of the US. We are ready to respond to whatsoever type of sanctions. However, I would like to underscore one thing about the legality and morality of the UN Security Council "sanctions resolutions", since foreign ministers of various countries are also present here. The UN Charter stipulates that the Security Council is to act only when there is "breach of the peace" or "existence of threat to the peace". There is neither Article in the UN Charter nor international law which stipulates that weapons tests including nuclear tests and satellite launches are regarded threats to international peace and security. Were there such an Article, would certainly the UN Security Council have taken action for every nuclear test of over 2,000 times and satellites launches conducted long before nuclear tests and satellites launches of the DPRK were conducted. Were it the case, should the UN Security Council not have remained silent. The UN Security Council, however, defined in an arbitrary manner only the DPRK's nuclear tests and satellite launches as "threats to international peace and security" and adopted so called "resolutions" on banning them. Thereafter, the UN Security Council kept adopting "sanctions resolutions" on the ground that we violated them. The core substance of the UN Security Council "sanctions resolutions" against the DPRK lies in the act of abusing power in pursuit of one's own political purposes by overriding the UN Charter. In this regard, the DPRK has officially asked the UN Secretariat for a clarification over the question of the legality of the "sanctions resolutions" but until today the Secretariat is not yet responding to the request. The joint military exercises taken place in south Korea from last March through April was clearly an act of threats to international peace and security due to its aggressive and offensive nature with the aim of "decapitating" the leadership of a sovereign country and occupying its capital. Despite the repeated request of the DPRK government for an emergency meeting on the US-south Korea joint military exercises, the UN Security Council did not act and turned away from all the requests. If one is a dignified UN member state, it should pay due attention to the question of whether or not impartiality and morality are clearly reflected in the UN Security Council "sanctions resolutions" against the DPRK and should make its own objective judgment. If the United States were not hostile toward the DPRK, the Korean peninsula would not have turned into the global hot spot like today. At the 7th Congress of the WPK, the Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un called upon the United States to drop its anachronistic hostile policy toward the DPRK, to replace the Armistice Agreement with peace agreement and to withdraw all the aggression forces and its warfare equipment. Furthermore, he has clarified the stand of the DPRK government that we will improve and normalize relations with those countries who respect our country's sovereignty and are friendly to us, even if they were hostile to us in the past. And yet, the United States is going in opposite direction. Recently the US went as far as to commit an act of greatest hostility by daring insult our supreme dignity under the pretext of non-existing "human rights issues". Such an act is an act of a declaration of war denying its coexistence with the DPRK, a sovereign country, and completely closing all the channels of dialogue with us. This is something that we expected and we are ready to both dialogue and confrontation. Three years ago, our Party advanced the line of simultaneously promoting economic construction and up-building of nuclear forces and it is thanks to this line that our nuclear deterrent has reached today the level of discharging its mission in good faith. If the situation of the Korean peninsula falls out of control in the coming August, it will be no other than the United States who should be fully responsible as the party for making a declaration of war by offending the supreme dignity of the DPRK, and also as the party who made shipment of nuclear strategic assets into the Korean peninsula. We are ready to show that even a power country will surely not be safe if it tries to torment and harm a small country. The United States will have to pay dearly a terrifying price. I do not feel any need of referring to the followers of the United States. The Chairman of the State's Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Comrade Kim Jong Un, said our real enemy is the nuclear war itself. The DPRK government will struggle vigorously to put an end by its root cause to the danger of nuclear war imposed by the United States, by our reliable and powerful nuclear deterrent and to safeguard peace in this region and the world at large. -0-