DPRK Foreign Minister and State Affairs Commission Member Ri Yong Ho
DPRK Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho [Ri Yo’ng-ho] sent a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Manuel de Oliveira Guterres on January 31. The letter said:
I address this letter to you with respect to an emerging dangerous military moves antithetical to the positive changes leading to improvement of inter-Korean relations and easing of tension now being manifested on the Korean peninsula.
The fact that a dramatic turning point has been made for peace and stability, national reconciliation and cooperation, and reunification on the Korean peninsula where a touch-and-go war danger was prevailing is entirely thanks to the noble love for the nation by respected Comrade Kim Jong Un (Kim Cho’ng-u’n), chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK, his will for reunification based on devotion to the country and people and his great and courageous determination for safeguarding peace.
Owing to our magnanimous initiative, good results are borne in the inter-Korean dialogue, thus giving joy to all fellow countrymen, and a positive atmosphere in favor of improving inter-Korean relations is created, and the international society warmly welcomes and supports this development and looks forward to seeing continued easing of tension on the Korean peninsula.
However, the US authorities are misleading public opinion as if the inter-Korean dialog is an outcome of their harshest sanctions and pressure imposed upon our country, and seeking to intentionally aggravate the situation by introducing the strategic assets including nuclear powered aircraft carrier strike groups into the vicinity of the Korean peninsula at a time when north and south of Korea are charting a course of peace together.
In view of its nature and contents, scope of troop and war equipment being introduced, the US current moves of military reinforcements are designed to make preemptive strike against the DPRK, and this is a primary factor which would block the inter-Korean reconciliation process and drive the situation of the Korean peninsula into an unpredictable dangerous phase.
On the other hand, the United States is openly stating that it will conduct a large-scale aggressive joint military exercise against the DPRK immediately after the Winter Olympic Games.
It is the fact acknowledged by the whole world that whenever joint military exercises took place, the peace and security of the Korean peninsula were gravely threatened and the inter-Korean mistrust and confrontation reached the top, thus creating great difficulties and obstacles ahead of hard-won dialogues.
We will make every effort to improve inter-Korean relations in future, too, but never sit idle with regard to sinister act of throwing a wet blanket over our efforts.
In case the hard-won atmosphere in favor of improving the inter-Korean relations and easing the tensions is undermined due to the US maneuvers of aggravating situation by introducing nuclear war equipment in and around the Korean peninsula, the US would never escape from that responsibility.
As a matter of course, the United Nations should not keep silence as to the US dangerous game of aggravating situation in and around the Korean peninsula and driving the whole world into a possible disaster of nuclear war.
I express my expectation that you pay a serious attention to the US deployment of nuclear war equipment and its maneuvers to provoke a nuclear war which will undermine the improvement of inter-Korean relations and the easing of tensions, and exert all your efforts to completely terminate these maneuvers, in line with your mission stipulated in the UN Charter.
And as an immediate step forward, I would like to request you to take up at the UN Security Council, in line with Rule 6 Chapter 2 of the UNSC Rules of Procedure, the issue of welcoming the process of improved inter-Korean relations and discouraging the neighboring countries from disturbing the process.
