DPRK Urges UN to Avoid Applying Double Standards

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, June 28, 2003

DPRK Urges UN to Avoid Applying Double Standards

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With Washington pushing hard for a Security Council condemnation of Pyongyang on the nuclear issue, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) called on the council not to apply double standards.

The appeal was one of several demands the DPRK put forward in a letter to Council President Sergey Lavrov of Russia on Thursday night, which was made available to the press Friday.

"The United Nations Security Council should avoid giving any impression that it might apply double standards," said the letter, written by DPRK Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun.

"As is well known, the DPRK is not the only country remaining outside the NPT (nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty)," it noted. "Among non-NPT state parties, Israel has been subject to more suspicion of nuclear development for much longer period of time than the DPRK."

As for the DPRK's withdrawal from the NPT in January, the letter stressed, "it is an exercise of its sovereign rights recognized by the NPT itself and, therefore, does not in any way deserve condemnation."

"If the Security Council resorts to double standards in the interpretation and application of the international instruments, any decision or measure it adopts will not be persuasive and will be difficult to be accepted," the letter warned.

DPRK's appeal came as the United States has been conducting intense consultations among council members in recent weeks in a bid to bring the DPRK's nuclear issue before the Security Council.

The US was trying to push through the council a draft statement condemning the DPRK's withdrawal from the NPT and its alleged revitalization of nuclear weapons program.

But diplomats here believe the sternly-worded statement was almost dead since it was strongly opposed by quite a few of council members.

DPRK's letter also urged the Security Council to take a position on the US doctrine of "axis of evil" and "preemptive strike," morally judge the US policy aiming to "stifle" the DPRK, and pay attention to the US "violations" of the Korean Armistice Agreement.

Targets of such a doctrine adopted as a policy by the US government are the member states of the United Nations, the letter said, adding that the policy gave rise to tensions surrounding the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula.

"The Security Council should make due judgement on whether the said doctrine and the policy based on it conform to the spirit of the United Nations Charter," the letter read.

It accused the United States of violating the Armistice Agreement by bringing into South Korea latest sophisticated weapons, redeploying US troops in South Korea, and pursuing a sea and air blockade against the DPRK through "inspections of vessels and aircraft."

While denouncing the US for its refusal to talk one-to-one with the DPRK, the letter said the DPRK hopes to hold bilateral, tripartite and multilateral or any other forms of talks on the nuclear issue "in an appropriate order."

"Since there were tripartite talks in Beijing in April, it would be productive that next, we have DPRK-US bilateral talks and then tripartite or further expanded talks," it read.

"The United States, however, puts up a precondition that one form of talks is acceptable but other form of talks is not acceptable."

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