The DPRK has begun this year again by defying multiple UN Security Council resolutions.
The United Kingdom strongly condemns the DPRK’s latest intermediate-range ballistic missile launch.
Colleagues, this latest launch follows a year of provocative and brazen violations by the DPRK, which saw the testing and firing of fifty missiles, including an intercontinental ballistic missile as well as their craven support to Russia, supplying weapons and troops, for Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine.
These actions should concern us all.
Our collective response is an important test for this Council’s authority and our commitment to defending the Council resolutions voted for in this Chamber.
Yet we are unable to unite against the DPRK’s continued flouting of the global non-proliferation architecture.
We should remain clear-eyed on the cost of this Council’s silence.
The DPRK continues to develop its nuclear and ballistic capabilities representing an unequivocal threat to peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and in the wider Indo-Pacific.
Russia’s veto of the mandate renewal of the Panel of Experts has given the DPRK a green light to commit such provocations unchecked.
And drawing false equivalence between the legitimate security concerns of Indo-Pacific nations and the illegal and provocative actions of the DPRK, as some Council members have done in the past, is wrong and dangerous.
I want to make clear that any nation’s refusal to condemn decisively the DPRK’s actions, represents direct complicity in furthering DPRK’s illegal weapons programme.
We want to see a prosperous and stable DPRK, whose people flourish in a secure neighbourhood.
So I urge DPRK to abandon its missile programmes and destructive partnership with Russia which is already reported to have cost DPRK lives, and refocus on the wellbeing of the people of the DPRK. To allow access to the international community, to accept repeated and unconditional offers for meaningful dialogue.
And to allow diplomacy to give the citizens of DPRK a peaceful, stable and prosperous future.
