N. Korea repeats demand for dissolution of UN Command on Korean Peninsula

A South Korean man walks to his vehicle near the road sign reading "Kaesong" before leaving for South Korea and North Korea's joint Kaesong Industrial Complex to bring back their finished goods and materials at the customs, immigration and quarantine office near the border village of Panmunjom, that has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Friday, July 12, 2013. (Photo : AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A senior diplomat of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Wednesday reiterated his country’s demand for the dissolution of the UN Command on the Korean Peninsula.

The so-called “United Nations Command”, that “has nothing to do with the UN”, should be dissolved and the name of UN and its flag should be no more misused, So Se Pyong, permanent representative of the DPRK to the UN Office in Geneva, said.

So Se Pyong told a specially-organized press conference that the “dissolution of the illegitimate ‘UN Command’ in South Korea” is a prerequisite requirement in easing tension and guaranteeing peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and the Asia-Pacific region.

His statement, which echoed that of the country’s ambassador to the UN headquarters in New York Sin Son Ho on June 21, came on the occasion of the forthcoming 60th anniversary of the Korea Armistice Agreement on July 27, So said.

He said that the “UN Command” is the main source that jeopardizes the situation on the Korean Peninsula and is inciting the military confrontation between big powers in the Asia-Pacific region.

South Korean vehicles leave for South Korea and North Korea's joint Kaesong Industrial Complex to bring back their finished goods and materials at the customs, immigration and quarantine office near the border village of Panmunjom, that has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Friday, July 12, 2013. (Photo : AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

“The U.S. will stage another joint military exercise in August in South Korea. In this case, the whole Korean Peninsula will fall again into the same critical war time situation,” he said, adding that such kind of joint military exercises are the main causes of tension on the Korean Peninsula.

He said the dissolution of the mechanism is one of the measures that can prove the U.S. statement which says that they have no hostile intention towards the DPRK.

“If the U.S. makes a bold decision to dissolve ‘UN Command’, we will be also in favor of taking bilateral confidence in response,” he said.

The “UN Command” is the command structure for the multinational military forces supporting South Korea during and after the Korean War in the 1950s.

The Korean War came to a cease-fire on July 27, 1953, when the Armistice Agreement was signed in Panmunjom on the border of the DPRK and South Korea. But the war is not officially over because no peace treaty has ever been signed. <Xinhua/NEWSis>