The Party and government of the DPRK are making positive efforts to usher in a new chapter of developing the foreign relations in line with its changed international position.

    Respected Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un clarified in his New Year Address that the Party and government of the DPRK would remain committed to the ideals of their foreign policy of independence, peace and friendship, expand and develop the relations of good-neighbourliness, friendship and cooperation with those countries championing independence, and make concerted efforts with them to ensure genuine international justice.

    The ideals of the DPRK's foreign policy clarified by him serve as important guidelines giving clear answers to the principled matters of boosting its external relations on its own initiative and ensuring the dignity and interests of the nation at the highest level in line with its status of independent power and a nuclear power.

    The DPRK's strategic position has reached the highest level since its founding.
    An epochal turn was brought about in bolstering up the defence capability of the DPRK and it achieved the status of a nuclear power, a military giant in the East which no enemy, however formidable, can dare to provoke. This provided a guarantee for defending the destiny of the country and nation and playing a leading role in building a just and peaceful, new world.

    Independence is the main principle being maintained by the government of the DPRK in its external relations.

    There are big and small countries in the world. But there can be no superior and inferior countries or those dictating others and those obliged to get instructions. Every country and nation is equal and should exercise same sovereignty.
    The DPRK, by strictly adhering to the principle of independence in its external relations, could invariably and dynamically advance along the road chosen by it, despite the raging wind raised by the reactionary forces of history against socialism worldwide and the hegemonic powers' evermore undisguised high-handed and arbitrary practices.

    The DPRK is working hard to defend peace and stability of mankind.

The desire of humankind for peace has not yet come true in the new century owing to the forces seeking aggression and war against peace.

The imperialists including the U.S. are still clinging to the war policy while dreaming of dominating the world with strength and harassing peace wherever they go.

    Today when those imperialists are getting evermore undisguised in their war moves, the DPRK's nuclear deterrence for self-defence serves as a powerful weapon for defending peace.

    If the ideal and desire of humankind to live independently and peacefully are to come true, every country should unite close under the banner of friendship

 Now that the imperialists are further tightening the nexus for aggression to keep their supremacy, the anti-imperialist independent countries should counter the imperialist and reactionary forces' offensive with their strategy of unity.
    The DPRK government has made positive efforts to establish and develop the relations of friendship with the countries which are friendly towards it, guided by the ideal of independence, peace and friendship.

    It is the consistent foreign policy stand of the DPRK to improve and normalize the relations with those countries which respect its sovereignty and are friendly toward it though they had been hostile to it in the past.

The DPRK will invariably adhere to the tenet of its foreign policy-- independence, peace and friendship-- and make positive contributions to the independent development of the world in the future, too. -0

 

Letter to UN Secretary-General by DPRK Permanent Representative

 

Pyongyang, January 6 (KCNA) -- The DPRK permanent representative to the United Nations sent a letter to the UN secretary-general on Thursday to make clear viewpoints regarding the letter addressed by the under secretary-general for Political Affairs, on behalf of the former UN secretary-general

 The letter said:

 I want to begin with the conclusion that the letter addressed by the under secretary-general for Political Affairs is not the answer to my question on what is the legal ground for the UN Security Council "sanctions resolutions" against the DPRK over its nuclear tests and peaceful satellite launch.

In the letters to the former UN secretary-general dated May 23 and December 5, 2016 respectively, I questioned if there is any single article in international laws which stipulates that nuclear tests and satellite and ballistic rocket launches constitute a threat to international peace and security as a legal ground for the UNSC "sanctions resolutions" against the DPRK.
    However, the UN Secretariat has only mentioned Article 39 in the UN Charter without any single word in response to my questions.

    Article 39 of the UN Charter cannot be a legal ground for "sanctions resolutions" as was already discussed in international law community.

    In 1966 when former Rhodesia declared independence from the British colonial regime the UNSC adopted a sanction resolution invoking Article 39 as its legal ground for the first time in the history of the UN. In this regard the international law community asserted that declaration of independence is not a threat to the peace or breach of the peace and labeled the adoption of the sanction resolution as an act of abuse of power. And even the writers of the UN Charter clarified that they had drafted Article 39 referring to an act of aggression, not to be invoked for a sanction in a peaceful time.

    If any nuclear test or satellite or ballistic rocket launch were considered a "threat to international peace and security", the UNSC should have made an issue of and enforced sanctions on the United States and other countries regarding their nuclear tests of over 2 000 times, ongoing regular satellite and ballistic rocket launches.

    This clearly proves that Article 39 of the UN Charter has no relation with any of nuclear tests or satellite launches.

    The acts of fabricating an unlawful and immoral "sanction resolution", imposing sanctions of blockade and going as far as to include in the list of targets of sanctions even sports rifles or bullets and bows and arrows by the UNSC are nothing but an act against humanity and civilization, severely threatening the right to live of our people and destroying the modern civilization as well as making the whole world turn back to the medieval dark land

 The hydrogen bomb test, nuclear warhead test and test-firing of various means of strike including inter-continental ballistic rockets are all full exercise of the legitimate right as stipulated in the UN Charter, as self-defensive measures for deterrent power which can wipe out the source of provocation in case of the encroachment upon our sovereignty and right to existence by the hostile forces.

    As long as the United States and its followers keep on nuclear threats and blackmails and as long as they do not stop their war games at our doorstep, disguising them as annual events, our self-defensive capabilities and the capability for preemptive strike with the nuclear armed forces as their pivot will be bolstered significantly.

    I hope that the UN Secretariat will discharge its responsibility before the international community by pondering over the questions regarding a legal ground of the "sanctions resolutions" against the DPRK and by responding with impartial answers to them in conformity with the basic mission of the UN for international peace and security. -0-