N. Korean envoy to UN calls on U.S. to lift sanctions

PanARMENIAN.Net - North Korea's envoy to the United Nations on Friday, June 21, called on the United States to lift its economic sanctions against Pyongyang and urged UN members not to follow Security Council sanctions imposed over the North's nuclear and missile tests, Reuters reported.

"I urge the United States to stop economic sanctions against us," North Korean UN Ambassador Sin Son-ho told reporters at a rare news conference at UN headquarters in New York. He added that he appealed to UN member states not to "blindly" follow UN sanctions against Pyongyang.

Sin blamed the tensions on the Korean peninsula on the United States. He said Washington was responsible for a situation in which there is "neither peace nor war on the Korean peninsula."

"The most pressing issue is the aggression between the U.S. and the DPRK (North Korea) which could result in another war at any moment."

He reiterated Pyongyang's call for senior-level talks with the United States aimed at replacing the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War with a peace treaty.

"The Korean armistice agreement has been nullified by the United States," he said.

He also called for the dissolution of the U.S.-led UN Command in South Korea, saying the forces are "war-oriented and not peace-oriented" and describing them as the "root of evil."

Sin said he would submit a proposal for dissolving the UN Command, which he said had nothing to do with the United Nations, to the UN General Assembly. The 193-nation assembly does not have the power to issue binding decisions, which is something only the Security Council can do.