UN Chief Guterres vows to 'denuclearize' DPRK

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The United Nations is committed to a fully denuclearized Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday as a divided Security Council allows more room for the country to expand its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

Guterres: meetings aim for peace and stability

After meeting South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol in Seoul, Guterres proclaimed the United Nations' "clear commitment to the full, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and DPRK."

"There's a fundamental objective to bring peace, security, and stability to the whole region," the Secretary-General told Yoon while lauding South Korea's participation in international peacekeeping efforts and in fighting climate change.

Guterres arrived in South Korea on Thursday and later met with South Korean Foreign Minster Park Jin, who voiced that the international community should be communicating a strict and unified message to the DPRK that its "nuclear ambitions" won't be accepted.

Park further called for the UN's help in establishing an effective solution to the DPRK's nuclear matter, and Guterres expressed support for South Korean efforts to stabilize peace in the peninsula, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Guterres' talks with South Korean officials come a day after DPRK leader Kim Jong Un declared victory over the COVID-19 outbreak in the country after it grappled with the crisis for months.

Pyongyang had accused South Korea of causing the COVID-19 outbreak that started crystalizing in May. Seoul rejected these accusations.

The DPRK accusations come in light of South Korean activists flying balloons containing US dollars and propaganda leaflets over their country's border with the North, which Pyongyang has long been protesting against, leading Seoul to ban it in 2021. These activities still took place despite the ban, however.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea had gone almost two and a half years without recording a single case of Covid despite the outbreak causing the rest of the world to be up against the ropes amid massive waves of cases that have exceeded half a billion as of Thursday, nearing 600 million.

Nuclear testing harbors US fears 

The DPRK has fired more than 30 ballistic missile tests this year, including its first intercontinental ballistic missiles since 2017, as leader Kim Jong Un pushes to advance his nuclear arsenal despite what Pyongyang referred to as "gangster-like" US pressure and sanctions.

Kim previously stressed that Pyongyang was ready to mobilize its nuclear war deterrent, warning that Seoul was pushing towards the verge of war.

Experts claim that the abnormal fast pace in weapons demonstrations also accentuates brinkmanship targeted at forcing Washington to embrace the DPRK as a nuclear power and to negotiate urgently needed sanction relief and security concessions.

Although the Biden administration has said it would impose additional sanctions if the DPRK conducts more nuclear testing, the expectations for meaningful punitive measures are unclear.

China and Russia recently vetoed US-sponsored resolutions at the UN Security Council meeting that aimed to increase sanctions on the North over some of its ballistic missile testing this year, highlighting tension between the council's members that has strained over the Russia-Ukraine conflict.