North Korea’s representative to the United Nations, Kim Song, told the General Assembly during its last day of addresses on Monday that the rogue communist state will continue to develop its nuclear arsenal so long as it feels intimidated by the United States.
In sharp contrast to many other states, which urged the world to abandon nuclear weapons and seek nonproliferation, Kim insisted that North Korea’s illegal nuclear weapons program was a matter of the “legitimate right to self-defense of a sovereign state.” North Korea passed a law banning denuclearization this month.
Opening his speech, Kim, speaking on behalf of dictator Kim Jong-un, claimed that it took only 100 days for the impoverished communist state to eradicate Chinese coronavirus entirely – and that the world should learn from its “superior socialist system.” North Korea denied having documented a single case of Chinese coronavirus – despite being surrounded by nations with high rates of infection, such as Russia, China, and South Korea – through April of this year. It declared “victory” against the virus in August.
Kim offered that North Korea’s “successes and experiences” with Chinese coronavirus could help the world overcome its own epidemics – without any detail into what, exactly, North Korea did to contain the disease. Given the secretive nature of the country, which bans any media not controlled by the Kim regime, little public information is available on pandemic response within its borders. Clandestine reports based on anonymous sources within the country indicate that North Korean officials reached out for humanitarian aid from neighboring China, the country of origin of the pandemic, and began administering to soldiers, particularly those working on the nation’s borders, unspecified coronavirus vaccine products.
In March 2020, Kim Jong-un announced the urgent construction of a new medical facility called the “Pyongyang General Hospital” but denied that doctors had identified any cases of Chinese coronavirus in the country or that any health emergency existed. Reports citing locals with knowledge revealed that Pyongyang ran out of construction materials for the hospital in early 2021 and construction has yet to recommence.
Kim Song nonetheless told the U.N. General Assembly that North Korea had succeeded in “achieving a decisive victory in exterminating the malignant virus in a very short period of 100-odd days.”
“All this is the brilliant result brought by the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] government’s correct anti-epidemic policy and the superior socialist system,” Kim boasted.
Turning to the issue of nuclear weapons, Kim Song was unapologetic, emphasizing that the country would pursue increasingly deadly and advanced weapons proportionally to how threatened it felt by the United States. America and North Korea – and China and South Korea – remain technically in a state of war since no peace treaty was signed when active hostilities in the Korean War ended in 1953.
“A few days ago, the U.S. president, just at this place, picked on us saying that despite their ‘efforts to begin serious and sustained diplomacy,’ the DPRK continues to blatantly violate U.N. ‘sanctions,” the diplomat said.
“In direct proportion to the increase of the hostile policy and military blackmail by the U.S. against us, our strength is bound to be built up continuously to contain them,” Kim promised. “The U.S. compelled the DPRK to adopt a law on the policy of nuclear forces in defiance of the U.S. hostility.”
“The U.S. should clearly understand that its heinous hostile policy against the DPRK over the past 30 years has just brought about today’s reality and ask and answer itself and ponder over how far it would lead this situation in the future,” he warned.
Kim also condemned the United Nations, and the Security Council specifically, for condemning North Korea’s nuclear weapons development.
“The mere fact that the UNSC [Security Council] makes an issue of the exercise of the legitimate right to self-defense of a sovereign state is a contradictory act as it denies the basic spirit of the U.N. Charter which clearly stipulates sovereign equality and non-interference as well as the recognized rules governing international relations,” he argued.
The North Korean envoy abstained from mentioning any specific conflicts it was not involved in – in particular failing to mention Russia’s eight-year-old invasion of Ukraine, which became a prime news topic in the West in February. He urged in passing attention for “climate change,” but did not offer any specific policy requests. He also demanded reform of the U.N. Security Council to curb America’s power but stopped short of urging its removal from the diplomatic body.
“Today, the world is faced with not a few severe crises and challenges, but the most fundamental danger is the high-handedness and arbitrariness of the U.S.,” Kim concluded, “and its followers that are destroying the foundation of the international peace and stability in order to maintain the hegemonic unipolar world.”
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