[Cankor] Report #262

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CanKor # 262

Friday, 29 September 2006
*************************************************

In his address to the UN General Assembly, DPRK Deputy Foreign Minister 
Choe Su Hon accuses the USA of torpedoing Six-Party Talks and Japan's 
new right-wing government of seeking to overhaul its pacifist 
constitution in order to aggressively rearm its military.

Selig S. Harrison, a longtime Korea specialist based in Washington, says 
top North Korean officials he met in Pyongyang told him they intended to 
unload fuel rods at their Yongbyon reactor to extract more plutonium for 
nuclear bombs earlier than had been expected, in order to push the USA 
to drop financial sanctions and return to nuclear negotiations.

Accepting fiction as fact, the three largest South Korean newspapers 
misread an exercise in understanding the Pyongyang perspective by Bob 
Carlin, a former US State Department intelligence official who made a 
career of studying the DPRK. The Nautilus Institute published an 
imaginary speech by a prominent DPRK official that was in fact written 
by Carlin as an attempt to give a US audience at the Brookings Institute 
an imaginative perspective on how North Koreans view US-DPRK relations 
over the last few years.

The deputy permanent representative to the UN in New York, Ambassador 
Han Song Ryol, is to be replaced by Kim Myong Kil, a researcher from an 
institute of the DPRK Foreign Ministry on arms reduction and peace, 
according to sources. During his five-year tenure, Ambassador Han has 
been the main contact between Pyongyang and Washington, the so-called 
"New York channel".

In the RESOURCES section of this issue of the CanKor Report, we 
reproduce the full text of the statement by H.E. Mr. Choe Su Hon, 
Chairman of the Delegation of the DPRK presented at the general debate 
of the sixty-first session of the United Nations General Assembly in New 
York City on 26 September 2006.
*************************************************

Contents:

1.   DPRK SAYS USA AND JAPAN TORPEDOING NUCLEAR TALKS
     
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2006/09/27/n_korea_us_torpedoing_nuclear_talks/

2.   DPRK TO CHALLENGE USA ON NUCLEAR FUEL
     
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/25/world/asia/25nkorea.html?_r=1&n=Top%2fNews%2fWorld%2fCountries%20and%20Territories%2fNorth%20Korea&oref=slogin

3.   BUGS BUNNY INFLUENCES NORTH KOREA?
     
http://english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/article_view.asp?menu=A11100&no=319447&rel_no=1&back_url=

4.   MISREPORT ON NUKES DAMAGES ROK DAILIES
     http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200609/kt2006092519142811970.htm

5.   DPRK DEPUTY ENVOY TO UN TO BE REPLACED
     http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200609/kt2006092822131511990.htm

RESOURCES

7.   DPRK SPEECH AT UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY
     Direct from Permanent Mission of the DPRK to the UN, NYC
*************************************************

1.   DPRK SAYS USA AND JAPAN TORPEDOING NUCLEAR TALKS
     by Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press, 27 September 2006

North Korea accused the United States of torpedoing six-party talks on 
its nuclear program and then took aim at Japan's new government, saying 
conservatives were attempting to turn Japanese society to the right and 
rearm the country. North Korea's harsh denunciation of Japan at the UN 
General Assembly's ministerial meeting came hours after Shinzo Abe's 
election Tuesday as Japan's youngest postwar prime minister. A 
nationalist and proponent of a robust alliance with the United States, 
Abe has called for a more assertive military and an overhaul of Japan's 
pacifist constitution.

There was no mention of the elections in the formal speeches to the 
assembly by North Korea's Deputy Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon and 
Japan's UN Ambassador Kenzo Oshima. But at the end of the session, 
diplomats from both countries exercised their right of reply and traded 
fresh accusations. While never mentioning the election, or Abe's 
victory, the North Korean diplomat said Japan's conservative authorities 
"are attempting to turn the whole society of Japan into the right, 
expedite the militarization and legitimize its ... aggression by 
amending the constitution." The diplomat, who was not named, claimed 
Japan's criticism of North Korea was an attempt to cover up its ambition 
to attack the country again.

"The Korean people have a deep-seated grudge toward Japan, which has to 
paid off with blood," the diplomat said, repeatedly referring to Japan's 
more than 40-year occupation of Korea. "Japan is dangerous because while 
it is rich in wealth, it is very poor in terms of morality and ethics."

Japanese diplomat Takahiro Shinyo said "it was very, very unfortunate" 
that North Korea kept raising issues from the past. He said the 
government is prepared to discuss outstanding issues and "settlement of 
the past." Shinyo noted that in the September 2005 statement issued by 
the six parties to the nuclear talks, Japan and North Korea committed 
themselves to take steps to normalize relations.

"Japan has been for more than 50 years, since its membership of the 
United Nations, a peace-loving country and member, and contributed to 
international peace and security," Shinyo said, urging that the country 
be judged by its contributions.

In Tuesday's formal speech to the General Assembly, North Korea's Choe 
said his government opposed further nuclear talks and blamed the United 
States -- specifically Washington's accusations about counterfeiting, 
its imposition of financial sanctions, and its desire for "global 
supremacy."

"It is quite preposterous that the DPRK, under the groundless US 
sanctions, takes part in the talks on discussing its own nuclear 
abandonment," Choe said, referring to the North by its acronym. He 
called it a "principle that cannot tolerate even the slightest concession."

Pyongyang has boycotted the six-party talks, involving China, Japan, the 
Koreas, Russia and the USA, insisting it will not return unless 
Washington drops financial restrictions imposed for the regime's alleged 
complicity in counterfeiting and money laundering. The USA has said the 
North shouldn't link the financial issue to the nuclear talks.

The need to resume the talks has taken on added urgency since North 
Korea test-fired a series of missiles in July. Reports also have 
suggested the communist regime might conduct a nuclear test to further 
escalate tension. North Korea boasts that it has nuclear bombs, but the 
claim has not been independently verified. Many experts believe the 
North has enough radioactive material to build at least a half-dozen or 
more nuclear weapons.

Choe also rejected Japan's push for a permanent seat on the Security 
Council, saying this should never be allowed to happen, and he 
criticized the Security Council itself as irresponsible, 
unrepresentative and unfair. As for the United States, Choe claimed 
North Korea has developed nuclear weapons as a deterrent solely for 
self-defense against pre-emptive strikes by the United States and was 
eager, in principle, to hold talks. But he said Washington's "vicious, 
hostile policy" made negotiations unacceptable. Choe blamed aggravated 
tensions on the Korean peninsula on the US military presence in South 
Korea, a US doctrine of a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the North, 
large-scale US-South Korean military exercises, US military equipment 
sales to Seoul and regular US aerial reconnaissance flights over the North.

"It is crystal clear that the USA is not in favor of the six-party talks 
and the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," Choe said, referring 
to President Bush's characterization of the North as part of an "axis of 
evil."

The United States shrugged off the denunciation. "I wouldn't pay too 
much attention to that. We're trying to step up our work with the South 
Koreans to make sure we're really in sync," US Assistant Secretary of 
State Chris Hill told The Associated Press in Washington.

Japan's Oshima reiterated his country's condemnation of North Korea's 
ballistic missile launches on July 4 as a "reprehensible act," noted 
that Tokyo has imposed financial sanctions and stressed the need to 
comprehensively resolve the North's nuclear issue.
*************************************************

2.   DPRK TO CHALLENGE USA ON NUCLEAR FUEL
     by Joseph Kahn, New York Times, 25 September 2006

North Korea plans to step up production of fuel for nuclear weapons 
unless the United States drops financial sanctions and returns to 
negotiations over its nuclear programme, an American scholar with ties 
to North Korean leaders said Sunday. The scholar, Selig S. Harrison, a 
longtime Korea specialist based in Washington, said top North Korean 
officials whom he met with last week told him they intended to unload 
fuel rods at their Yongbyon reactor and extract plutonium for nuclear 
bombs earlier than had been expected.

"It is a significant new development because it underlines that North 
Korea is enhancing its weapons capability," Mr. Harrison said in Beijing 
after returning from Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. He quoted 
Kim Kye-gwan, the vice foreign minister of North Korea, who is 
overseeing its participation in the stalled six-nation negotiations, as 
saying that the fuel rods would be unloaded this fall. Mr. Harrison, who 
cultivates ties to the reclusive officials who run North Korea, said 
that he did not interpret the statement of intention to expedite nuclear 
fuel production as a threat and that the political and military leaders 
he had met seemed eager to resume negotiations with the outside world. 
After meetings with several top North Korean political and military 
figures, he said, they expressed a desire to carry out a preliminary 
international accord on dismantling their nuclear programme.

North Korea reached the accord with the United States and four other 
nations a year ago, but has refused to discuss how to carry it out. 
Shortly after the agreement, the Bush administration imposed financial 
sanctions on North Korea. The administration said the sanctions were 
necessary to stop North Korean counterfeiting of American dollars and 
other black market activities.

Mr. Harrison said North Korean officials had repeated public demands 
that the United States drop financial sanctions before nuclear 
negotiations resume. But he said they were also seeking ways for the two 
countries to resume talks even earlier as a way to build trust. He 
argued that the sanctions, which he said North Koreans saw as an effort 
to further isolate them and to topple the government of Kim Jong Il, 
were counterproductive in ridding the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons.

"The USA will have to find a way to deal with illicit transactions 
without destroying North Korean intercourse with the outside world," Mr. 
Harrison said. "The policy of sanctions is completely counterproductive."

The Bush administration has defended the sanctions as a vital law 
enforcement action. Administration officials say that they are unrelated 
to the nuclear talks and that the only significant obstacle to resuming 
those talks is North Korea's reluctance to give up nuclear weapons.
*************************************************

3.   BUGS BUNNY INFLUENCES NORTH KOREA?
     by Timothy Savage, OhmyNews, Seoul, 25 September 2006

The three largest South Korean newspapers -- the Chosun Ilbo, Joong Ang 
Ilbo and Donga Ilbo -- were abuzz with news of a speech given in 
Pyongyang by Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok Ju, saying that North Korea 
had already developed five to six nuclear weapons.

The only problem with this revelation was that Kang never actually said 
such a thing. Kang's alleged remarks were read in "translation" at a 
seminar at the Brookings Institution on 14 September by Bob Carlin, a 
former US State Department intelligence official who made a career of 
studying North Korea. They came to the attention of the South Korean 
press when they were published on the Web site of the Nautilus Institute.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I should remark that as well as 
being a staff member of OhmyNews, I also work part-time for the Seoul 
node of the Nautilus Institute.)

Carlin wrote the "speech" as an attempt to "give the audience an 
imaginative perspective on how the North Koreans would view the 
situation of the last few years." As he noted in the introduction, he 
had been asked to "channel" (in the clairvoyant sense) Kim Jong Il, but 
decided instead to use Kang as his medium.

While, admittedly, Nautilus failed to make clear in its posting that the 
speech was made up, several clues should have alerted a discerning 
reader as to what was up. In addition to the use of the word channeling, 
Carlin has Kang's audience groan at the mention of a tour of the USS 
Pueblo -- an inside joke for anyone who has been subjected (as I have) 
to that particular exercise in anti-American propaganda. He jokes about 
Dick Cheney being elected to the DPRK National Defense Committee. He 
even paraphrases George W. Bush, saying, "If we do not confront the 
Americans with strength, we may soon have to fight them in our cities." 
Most tellingly, the speech ends with Kang making an analogy to a Bugs 
Bunny cartoon he had allegedly seen during his stay in Washington. 
According to Carlin, of the roughly 100 or so listeners at the Brookings 
event, none left thinking that they had heard a real North Korean address.

None of the news agencies that ran the story attempted to contact Carlin 
to verify the veracity of the speech, he told me by telephone from New 
York. Yonhap, the first agency to run the story, later issued a 
retraction when it realized that the speech had been made up.

For Carlin, though, the real story is not the "dropping of the 
journalistic ball" by the South Korean media. What's important, he said, 
"is how we get to think about the North Korean perspective, and how they 
view our (US) public statements and actions."

In the words that Carlin puts in his mouth, Kang waxes somewhat 
nostalgic about the progress made in US-North Korean relations in the 
1990s, and the shock at how quickly it was reversed under the Bush 
administration. "We failed because we never imagined the roots of what 
was accomplished were so shallow; we never imagined how quickly all that 
had been accomplished could be discarded," says Carlin's North Korean.

This is just the latest indictment by a Washington insider of the 
shortsightedness of the Bush administration's North Korea policy. Most 
veteran North Korean watchers, including those who were actively 
involved in policymaking during the Clinton administration, do believe 
that Pyongyang was serious in wanting to improve relations with the 
United States. The Bush administration, however, has made clear that it 
has no intention of reciprocating.

The latest example of this is the pressuring of international banks that 
do business with North Korea. While justified by alleged North Korean 
counterfeiting, it is clear from the treatment of legitimate businesses 
like Daedong Credit Bank that Washington has no intention of 
distinguishing between legal and illegal transactions. Rather, the Bush 
administration is seeking to squeeze Pyongyang in the hopes of forcing 
either capitulation or collapse.

For decades, Carlin attempted to understand the North Korean way of 
thinking from within the US government, and then as an advisor to KEDO, 
the organization charged with implementing the now-defunct light-water 
reactor project. Now he's using his long experience to try to accomplish 
the same thing as a private citizen.

Sadly, it doesn't appear that anyone who matters in Washington is listening.

[The full text of the Carlin presentation is available at: 
http://www.nautilus.org/fora/security/0678carlin.html --CanKor.]
*************************************************

4.   MISREPORT ON NUKES DAMAGES ROK DAILIES
     by Lee Jin-woo, The Korea Times, 25 September 2006

Reports by South Korean media that claimed North Korea has developed at 
least five to six nuclear weapons have been found out to be grossly 
inaccurate. The reports were based on an alleged speech by a 
high-ranking North Korean official, which was found to be a fictional 
composition by a US expert on North Korean issues.

Yonhap News Agency, a wire service in Seoul, reported Sunday night that 
Kang Sok Ju, the North's first vice foreign minister, told a meeting of 
North Korean diplomats in Pyongyang that the North has developed five or 
six nuclear weapons and its nuclear program is nearing the point of no 
return. The series of news reports was based on an article recently 
posted at the Web site of the US-based think tank, the Nautilus 
Institute that was written by Robert Carlin, former chief of the 
Northeast Asia Division at the US State Department.

[The full text of the Carlin presentation is available at: 
http://www.nautilus.org/fora/security/0678carlin.html -- CanKor.]

In the article, Carlin said he received a hand-written script of Kang's 
speech in an envelope postmarked Prague. He said he translated the 
speech, originally in Korean, adding that he could not say who sent it 
to him. However, it was a fiction, which Yonhap reporters were not aware 
of until getting a phone call from its correspondent in Washington DC 
the very next day. The wire service had posted some 13 reports including 
the full text of Kang's speech, which was also a fiction, since 11:17 
p.m. Sunday. Most South Korean newspapers as well as a few broadcasters 
reported the story without verifying its veracity. Some dailies even 
allocated three to four pages to analyze the meaning of the speech.

"We had no time to find out the truth behind the story. It was almost 
midnight and we were under time pressure to finish the production 
quickly," a reporter of a vernacular daily told The Korea Times. "I feel 
ashamed. It clearly showed how incompetent and irresponsible many Korean 
reporters are." He added that the story had already been presented as a 
fictional composition in a forum held in the United States earlier this 
month, which ROK reporters were not aware of.
*************************************************

5.   DPRK DEPUTY ENVOY TO UN TO BE REPLACED
     The Korea Times, 28 September 2006

North Korea's deputy envoy to the United Nations is expected to be 
replaced soon by an expert on arms reduction, the Yonhap News Agency 
reported yesterday. In a New York dispatch, Yonhap said Han Song Ryol, 
deputy head of North Korea's UN mission, is expected to step down next 
month.

Kim Myong Kil, a researcher from an institute of the North's Foreign 
Ministry on arms reduction and peace, was expected to take the post, it 
said, quoting diplomatic sources in New York.

"I understand Kim has already filed a request with the (US) State 
Department for a visa," a source was quoted as saying on condition of 
anonymity.

The North's UN mission refused to make any official comment on the 
report. The replacement, if it takes place, is expected to weaken the 
so-called New York channel between Pyongyang and Washington as Han has 
been working as the communist state's de facto ambassador to the United 
States, according to sources. North Korea and the United States have yet 
to establish formal diplomatic ties, and dialogue between the two is 
seen as a critical part of efforts to peacefully resolve ongoing 
disputes over the North's nuclear and other weapons programs.

Han has been in the post for the past five years although most North 
Korean diplomats serve three-year terms, according to the sources. Han's 
successor is known to have graduated from the North's Kim Il-sung 
University where he studied English literature. He is also believed to 
have studied in Guyana, a country located on the northern coast of South 
America, and worked as a councilor at the North's mission to the United 
Nations in 1997.

His latest visit to the United States was in October 2004 when he 
visited Harvard University and Stanford University along with other 
officials from his ministry institute.
*************************************************

RESOURCES

*************************************************

7.   DPRK SPEECH AT UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY
     Press Release, DPRK Permanent Mission to the UN, 26 September 2006

[The following statement was presented by H.E. Mr. Choe Su Hon, Chairman 
of the Delegation of the DPRK, at the general debate of the sixty-first 
session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, 26 
September, Juche 95 (2006)]

Madam President,

Allow me first of all, on behalf of the delegation of the Democratic 
People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), to congratulate you, Madam Sheikha 
Haya Rashed Al Khaifa on your election into the presidency of this 
session and express my conviction that this session will be successful 
under your able leadership.

Madam President,

The desire of the humankind for a peaceful and prosperous world in the 
new century is still faced with grave challenges. The unilateralism and 
high-handed acts of the super power are ever becoming so reckless as to 
trample down the principles on the respect for sovereign equality of all 
States, the fundamental basis of the UN Charter, thereby arousing a 
serious concern of the international society.

Worse still are the invasions on sovereign states either openly 
committed or disregarded and even fanned up under the pretext of 
"non-proliferation" and "anti-terrorism", giving rise to a massacre of 
innocent people and the serious destruction of international peace and 
security. The threats and high-handed acts of the super power are 
evermore undisguised towards the DPRK as their target.

The US adventurous military maneuvers such as military exercises and 
economic blockade against the DPRK continue to be tolerated, while the 
routine missile test fires of our army for self-defense have been picked 
up to be condemned as "a threat to international peace and security". 
Such a reality gives a serious lesson to all of us that a country with 
the powerful strength, a deterrent of justice, is capable of 
safeguarding the dignity and sovereignty of a nation by itself.

Herein lies the necessity and justness of Songun policy of General KIM 
JONG IL, the respected leader of our people. The Songun policy is a sure 
guarantee that enables the DPRK to safeguard its sovereignty and 
security, and to ensure peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and 
the rest of the region as a whole, in the face of the ever-hardening US 
hostile policy toward the DPRK. The DPRK's possession of deterrent 
power, solely for self-defense, is also fully in line with the interests 
of the regional countries for peace and security, and peaceful environment.

Madam President,

As is well known, the Korean people suffered from the tragic history 
because of the nearly half-a-century long tyrannical military occupation 
by Japan, and thereafter, have been living in a state of war with the 
USA over sixty years. It is against this background that the Korean 
people are aspiring after peace more than any other countries. Today, 
there still persist the touch-and-go critical tension and confrontation 
on the Korean peninsula, rather than durable peace and security. Its 
source is nothing but the US vicious hostile policy on the DPRK. The 
nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula is not exceptional as well in view 
of its origination from the US nuclear threats.

The US policy towards the DPRK has gone, further beyond the mere 
hostility, so far as to pose nuclear threats even by designating it as 
part of an "axis of evil" and target of preemptive strikes, thus driving 
the DPRK to inevitably possess nuclear deterrent after all. The DPRK 
Government maintains its consistent position to resolve the issue of 
denuclearizing the Korean peninsula peacefully through dialogue and 
negotiations.

As well known to the world, the core elements stipulated in the Joint 
Statement of September 19, 2005 adopted at the Six-Party Talks are the 
respective commitments of the DPRK and the USA to abandon its nuclear 
program and to live in peaceful co-existence. As for the Joint 
Statement, the DPRK remains committed to implement all the agreed 
provisions of the Joint Statement on an equal footing. The DPRK is sure 
to get a greater benefit from the implementation of the agreed 
provisions of the Talks. That is why it is willing to hold the Talks 
more than any other countries.

However, the United States, soon after the announcement of the Joint 
Statement, has spent no time in imposing financial sanctions upon the 
DPRK, a dialogue partner, eventually scrapping the already-agreed 
itinerary for the following rounds of the Talks and creating the present 
impasse.

In view of these facts, it is crystal clear that the USA is not in favor 
of the Six-Party Talks and the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. 
If there is anything that the United States is in favor of, that is the 
aggravated tension on the Korean peninsula to be used as a pretext for 
reinforcing its military forces in the North-East Asian region. By doing 
so, the United States aims to strengthen its armed forces in this 
region, and thus contain the ever growing strong DPRK and neighboring 
countries within its world supremacy strategy. This is what the real 
intention of the United States is.

It is quite preposterous that the DPRK, under the groundless US 
sanctions, takes part in the Talks of discussing its own nuclear 
abandonment. This is the matter of principle intolerable of even the 
slightest concession.

On this opportunity, may I express my deep gratitude to Member States of 
the United Nations for their continued support and encouragement to the 
DPRK in its effort for a peaceful resolution of the nuclear issue on the 
Korean peninsular.

Madam President,

As far as Korea's reunification is concerned, it is the supreme 
aspiration of our nation to realize it at an early possible date as a 
prerequisite to ensuring lasting peace and security on the Korean 
peninsula. The North-South Joint Declaration of June 15, 2000 is a 
declaration of realizing independence and peaceful reunification by the 
Korean nation itself rejecting foreign interference.

Regrettably however, the south Korean Minister for Foreign Affairs and 
Trade made distorted remarks at this podium on 21 September as to the 
root causes of the tension in the Korean peninsula without saying a 
single word about the implementation of the North-South Joint 
Declaration of June 15. This arouses our consternation. It is already 
well-known fact to the world that the US military presence in south 
Korea, the US doctrine of preemptive nuclear strike against the DPRK, 
incessant large-scale joint military exercises of the USA and south 
Korea, mass delivery to south Korea of all sorts of military equipment 
including weapons of mass destruction, and the aerial reconnaissance by 
the USA for hundred-odd times every month constitute the major factors 
undermining peace and stability, and aggravating tension in the Korean 
peninsula.

And the North-South Joint Declaration of June 15 has not been smoothly 
implemented so far because of the persistent maneuvers of the USA who 
dislikes the improved inter-Korean relations as well as the existence in 
south Korea of such legal mechanisms as the "national security law" that 
stipulates fellow countrymen as enemy and denies even basic human 
rights, which is against the ideals of "By Our Nation Itself", the core 
in the Joint Declaration.

These are undeniable facts.

Upholding the banner of the North-South Joint Declaration of June 15 and 
under the ideals of "By Our Nation Itself", the Government of our 
Republic will surely achieve the national reunification by firmly 
realizing the cooperation in three areas of national independence, peace 
against war and patriotism for reunification.

Madam President,

For the United Nations to fulfill its mission for the maintenance of 
international peace and security, practical measures should be taken to 
reject unilateralism and high-handed acts that block the establishment 
of equitable and just international relations. Furthermore, the UN 
should be democratized, so that all international issues be resolved in 
conformity with the common interests of Member States. In this regard, 
we are of the view that one of the reasonable ways to that effect is to 
hand over the power of making resolutions from the UN Security Council 
to the General Assembly on the issues directly linked to international 
peace and security such as the use of force.

It is also imperative to ensure that the United Nations Security Council 
responsible for international peace and security observe strictly the 
principle of fairness in its activities. The Security Council should be 
a body accountable to the General Assembly by making real contribution 
to international peace and security, not a means of certain countries 
for legalizing their strategic interests.

The fact that the Security Council remains indifferent to the 
infringement of sovereignty and massacre of civilians committed in the 
Arab territories, such as the US invasion of Iraq and Israel's 
aggression of Lebanon, represents typical examples of irresponsibility, 
unfairness and double standards in its activities. The reform of the 
Security Council now under consideration should focus on ensuring 
fairness in its activities first and foremost and ensure that the 
non-aligned and developing countries, which take up the overwhelming 
majority of Member States, are fully represented in the Council.

With regard to the expansion of permanent membership, a country like 
Japan, the war criminal which invaded the Asian countries and committed 
a massacre of innocent people, but has been distorting its aggressive 
history instead of liquidating it, should never be allowed to become a 
permanent member of the Security Council.

Madam President,

The Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea will 
continue in the future, too, to develop relations of friendship and 
cooperation with all Member States that respect its sovereignty in 
accordance with the ideals of its foreign policy -- independence, peace 
and friendship -- and make active contribution to the efforts of 
international society for the achievement of world peace and security, 
and sustainable development.

Thank you.
*************************************************

End CanKor # 262

*************************************************

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