[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] North Korea has demanded that the United States permanently halt the joint South Korea-U.S. military exercises and the deployment of strategic weapons around the Korean Peninsula at the United Nations.
Kim Song, North Korea's ambassador to the UN, stated on the 27th (local time) during the final day of the general debate of the 76th UN General Assembly, "If the U.S. government truly desires peace and reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula, it must take the first step toward abandoning its hostile policy against Korea by permanently stopping joint military exercises and the deployment of strategic weapons on and around the Korean Peninsula."
Ambassador Kim argued, "The root cause of the endless cycle of tension and confrontation is the U.S.'s hostile policy toward Korea."
This confirmed North Korea's position that the U.S. must change its hostile policy for dialogue to take place.
He said that although North Korea possesses nuclear weapons, "it will never infringe upon or endanger the safety of surrounding countries such as the United States or South Korea."
Ambassador Kim stated, "We have the right to self-defense to prevent aggression and possess strong offensive means, but we do not want to use them against anyone," adding, "It is not because we have nuclear weapons that the U.S. is hostile toward us, but because the world's largest nuclear power, the U.S., is hostile toward us that we have acquired nuclear weapons." He shifted the responsibility for nuclear possession onto the United States.
Since the breakdown of the Hanoi North Korea-U.S. summit in 2019, North Korea has not sent high-level officials to the UN General Assembly. Instead, Ambassador Kim has delivered speeches at the UN General Assembly for three consecutive years since 2019. At the 73rd UN General Assembly held shortly after the first North Korea-U.S. summit in Singapore in 2018, then-Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho attended.
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