UN chief expresses full support for US-Japan dialogue with North Korea

UN/Dan Powell: Secretary-General António Guterres (left) and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan brief the media at a joint press conference in Tokyo.

At a joint press conference in Tokyo on Wednesday with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, UN Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed the ongoing talks between the United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), as well as Japan’s renewed initiative of dialogue with the country.

“As Secretary-General of the United Nations, I am obviously totally committed to the implementation of all relevant Security Council resolutions on North Korea,” he told reporters, adding that he fully supported the negotiations taking place “with the objective that we all share, to see a total denuclearization that is verifiable, that is irreversible, to make sure that North Korea can be a normal member of the international community in this region.”

In mid-June, US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held a historic summit in Singapore, signing a joint statement which included a pledge to end DPRK’s nuclear weapons programme. Days after conducting its sixth nuclear test last September, a North Korean ballistic missile flew over mainland Japan, drawing condemnation from the Security Council, which had just ratcheted up sanctions.

Standing alongside the Japanese leader, Mr. Guterres went on to express his support for Japan’s willingness to hold fresh talks with the North Korean leadership, following Prime Minister Abe’s offer of a high-level summit with the country.

The UN chief hailed these developments as timely, coming in the wake of a United Nation’s disarmament initiative, launched in May of this year. The new agenda, “Securing Our Common Future”, sets out his bold new vision for a world without nuclear arsenals and other deadly weapons. It focuses on three priorities — weapons of mass destruction, conventional weapons and new battlefield technologies.

He declared that “the North Korea and the Iran situations are two central aspects of our concerns to make sure that we preserve non-proliferation, but also recognizing that non-proliferation needs to be accompanied by effective disarmament, progressive disarmament measures in the nuclear dimension. And, at the same time, the full implementation of the ban on chemical weapons and biological weapons.”

UN/ Dan Powell/ Secretary-General António Guterres meets with survivors of the atomic bomb attacks on Nagasaki and Hiroshima

He added that the agenda represented “disarmament to save lives”, taking into account the “devastating impact” of conventional weapons on civilian populations in urban centres and “disarmament for the future generations, namely to make sure that we do not develop arms, systems of arms, that fully escape the control of human beings and responsibility of human beings”.

The Secretary-General travelled to Nagasaki later on Wednesday, where he was due to meet Mayor Tomihisa Taue, and other local officials, as well as with some hibakusha, or survivors of the atomic bombs.

On Thursday, he visits the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum and the Nagasaki National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims, before taking part in the 73rd Nagasaki Peace Ceremony.

United Nations News Centrewith breaking news from the UN News ServiceFurther development of DPRK nuclear programme cause of grave concern – UN atomic energy chief

Noting signs suggesting that a nuclear plant in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) could be operating, the head of the United Nations atomic agency called on the country’s leadership to comply fully with its obligations under Security Council resolutions.

IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano addresses the Board of Governors meeting in Vienna. Photo: D. Calma/IAEA

“There were indications at the Yongbyon Experimental Nuclear Power Plant suggesting that the reactor was being operated, [and] at the Yongbyon Nuclear Fuel Rod Fabrication Plant, there were indications consistent with the use of the reported centrifuge enrichment facility,” said Yukiya Amano, the Director General of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), at the agency’s Board of Governors meeting in Vienna.

“The continuation and further development of the nuclear programme of the DPRK are a cause for grave concern.”

Noting that the IAEA continues to closely follow developments in the country’s nuclear programme, the Director General said that the UN agency is enhancing its efforts to monitor and verify nuclear-related developments, including through ensuring the availability of appropriate verification technologies and equipment.

Turning to other areas, Mr. Amano said that the nuclear-related commitments undertaken by Iran under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action are being implemented and that the IAEA continues to verify the non-diversion of nuclear material declared by the country under its Safeguards Agreement.

“We will continue to implement the Additional Protocol in Iran, including carrying out complementary accesses to sites and other locations, as we do in other countries with additional protocols,” he noted.

On the implementation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) Safeguards Agreement in Syria, the IAEA Director General said that the agency’s assessment remains that it was “very likely” that the building destroyed at the Dair Alzour site in 2007 was a nuclear reactor that should have been declared as such by Syria under its Safeguards Agreement.

“I renew my call on Syria to cooperate fully with [IAEA] in connection with unresolved issues related to the Dair Alzour site and other locations,” he urged.

Also in his statement, Mr. Amano spoke of the agency’s technical cooperation programme, including its work to contain the outbreak of the fruit fly pest in the Dominican Republic and efforts to conserve ground water and protect it from pollution in the Sahel region, as well as its work on nuclear applications, and on nuclear safety and security.

Citing increasing demand for assistance under the technical cooperation programme, the IAEA Director General also urged all countries to contribute funds, and welcomed support through extrabudgetary contributions, including government cost sharing.