Week After Missile Tests, North Korea Is Head Of UN Disarmament Group

North Korea has assumed the leadership of a top nuclear disarmament forum at the United Nations. The country will chair the forum for the next three weeks, due to the position being rotated among the member nations. This comes a week after North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un firing several missile tests following President Joe Biden's visit to South Korea. The United Nations has actually imposed sanctions on Pyongyang after it conducted ballistic missile and nuclear tests.

The forum they are assuming the Presidency for, is the Conference on Disarmament which is held in Geneva three times a year. It was created at a time when nuclear stockpiling was at its height, and thus was intended to stop the looming threat of nuclear war. The conference, however, has not proven to make any policies that have helped with disarmament since 1996.

The United States has stated that North Korea being the chair of this committee prompts questions over its effectiveness. A state department spokesperson said, “It certainly does call that into question when you have a regime like the DPRK in a senior leadership post, a regime that has done as much as any other government around the world to erode the non-proliferation norm.”

Many western states during the opening session on Thursday collectively released a joint statement that said, “We remain gravely concerned about the DPRK's reckless actions which continue to seriously undermine the very value of the Conference on Disarmament". The statement was read by the Australian ambassador, on behalf of the coalition of countries.

North Korea responded to these statements, saying they noted the points of criticism but reiterated its claim of self defence.