North Korea demands dissolution of UN command in South Korea
Envoy says US is using command force to prepare for war against North Korea
North Korea’s UN envoy demanded the dissolution of the United Nations Command in South Korea on Friday, accusing the United States of using the force to prepare for war against the North and build an Asian version of NATO to realise President Barack Obama’s pivot to Asia.
Ambassador Sin Son-ho told reporters at a rare news conference that the most pressing issue in northeast Asia today is the hostile relations between North Korea and the United States “which can lead to a new war at any moment.”
He reiterated North Korea’s surprise offer last Saturday of wide-ranging senior-level talks with the United States “to defuse tension on the Korean peninsula and ensure peace and security in the region.”
The proposed talks followed months of rising tensions and anti-American rhetoric by North Korea and the collapse earlier this month of proposed high-level talks between North and South Korea, amid bickering over who would lead the two delegations.
The situation on the Korean peninsula this year has reached to the full-scale nuclear showdown
Sin stressed that the deteriorating situation on the Korean peninsula “is not caused by the DPRK,” the initials of the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
