North Korea warns of rise in tensions

NORTH Korea has warned that tensions on the Korean peninsula will increase and the situation will “take a turn for the worse again” if the US goes ahead with a UN Security Council meeting on the country’s human rights situation.

North Korea’s UN ambassador, Kim Song, yesterday said in a letter to the 14 other council members that Pyongyang considered any council meeting on its human rights “another serious provocation” resulting from America’s “hostile policy” and “will respond strongly”.

The US holds the Security Council presidency this month and diplomats said the Trump administration was planning a meeting on North Korea’s human rights situation, on December 10. The US mission did not respond to an email asking about the meeting.

The council discussed the rights situation in North Korea from 2014 until 2017, but skipped 2018.

On Wednesday, a half dozen European countries again condemned North Korea’s 13 “provocative” ballistic missile launches since May, saying they violated Security Council resolutions and “undermine regional security and stability as well as international peace and security”.

The statement was made by the five European council members – Belgium, France, Germany, the UK and Poland – and Estonia, which will join the UN’s most powerful body in January

The Europeans issued the statement after closed Security Council consultations they requested on North Korea’s latest missile launches last month, where they were briefed by UN political chief Rosemary DiCarlo.

The Europeans also urged North Korea “to engage in good faith in meaningful negotiations with the US aimed at denuclearisation, and to take concrete steps to abandoning all weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programmes in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner”.

“There is no other way to achieve security and stability on the Korean peninsula,” they said.

North Korea has ramped up its missile tests in recent months and experts say the launches are likely to continue as a way to pressure Washington into meeting Pyongyang’s demand for new proposals to revive nuclear diplomacy by the end of the month. |