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the country’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations

By Park Hyun, Washington correspondent

One of North Korea’s top diplomats has called for a treaty to rid the world of all nuclear weapons.

Ri Dong-il, the country’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, addressed in the issue in a Mar. 19 speech at UN headquarters in New York on negotiations for a treaty regulating conventional weapons.

“Nuclear weapons are possessed by only a very small number of countries, while conventional weapons are of a very sensitive character, with a direct bearing on all countries’ security,” Ri said.

He went on to say, “the importance of forming a treaty to completely eliminate nuclear weapons” should be reflected in the conventional weapons treaty.

Ri also said it was “easily predictable” that “the continued preemptive nuclear strike policies of the biggest nuclear nation [the US] will lead in the end to more countries possessing nuclear weapons.”

He also made reference to the US missile defense system, which he said, “hints at ambitions of absolute nuclear supremacy” and “possesses the risk of setting off a potential nuclear arms race.”

Meanwhile, White House spokesman Jay Carney responded at a press briefing to questions about Barack Obama contacting allies over North Korea policy by saying the president was “very focused on this issue, and that his senior national security team is focused on this issue.”

“We continue to work with all of our allies and partners on this issue to pressure and isolate North Korea, to make clear to North Korea what its options are and how it needs to proceed in order to rejoin the community of nations,” he continued.

Analysts read the remarks as reflecting considerable efforts by the White House in recent months to articulate Washington’s position and urge Pyongyang into making a decision.

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