It was a first in the history of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly. Within the scope of the law adopted at the UN General Assembly on April 25, the five permanent members of the Security Council exercising their veto right; The decision of the USA, China, England, France and Russia to make a statement to the UN General Assembly was implemented for the first time today.
Russia and China, which last week “vetoed” a resolution to impose new sanctions on North Korea’s recently banned long-range and ballistic missile tests, were forced to issue a statement to the UN General Assembly regarding their “veto” resolution.
China’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Zhang Jun, announced that since North Korea took steps to denuclearize in 2018, the US has not responded to North Korea’s positive initiatives, and therefore they vetoed the draft resolution.
Zhang argued that the United States rejected all positive steps taken by North Korea, did not act sincerely to solve the problem, and did not consider North Korea’s legitimate and reasonable concerns. The Chinese representative argued that it is cruel to impose new sanctions on North Korea, which is already in isolation due to COVID-19, through the Security Council.
Evaluating the sanctions so far by the Security Council against North Korea as “very cruel” and harsh, Zhang said, “The sanctions are harsh and unprecedented. There are many alternative positive steps that the United States can take, such as easing some sanctions against North Korea, stopping joint military exercises with South Korea. For the solution of the Korean peninsula problem, the old policies of sanctions and pressure must be abandoned,” he said.
Anna Evstigneeva, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, said that anyone who takes the North Korean issue seriously should understand that it is futile to wait for a long time for Pyongyang to unconditionally disarm under the threat of a spiral of sanctions.
Addressing the General Assembly on behalf of the USA, senior diplomat and Ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis, arguing that all of North Korea’s recent missile tests are a violation of previous UN Security Council resolutions, saying, “North Korea has more than one Security Council resolution accepted by all of us unanimously. violated. China and Russia became partners with the veto decision they took against the provocation of North Korea by ignoring the decisions,” he said.
The new draft resolution was presented by Liechtenstein at the UN General Assembly on April 25, and 83 countries sponsored the draft, which was supported by Turkey, as well as the two permanent members of the UN Security Council, the USA and the UK.
In the new resolution adopted at the UN General Assembly, the USA, Russia, England, China and France, who have veto rights in the Security Council, were required to explain to the UN General Assembly why they took this step within 10 days if they exercised their right. The new draft resolution adopted was evaluated as a bill of “holding accountability” from the five permanent members of the 193-member global organization in the UN Security Council.