PYONGYANG: North Korea on Monday urged the dissolution of the United Nations Command, calling it an “illegal war organization” over a meeting which is scheduled to take place between the member states in South Korea later this week, as reported by state media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The United Nations Command (UNC), led by US, is a multinational military force overseeing affairs in the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas, which technically remain at war.
Seoul’s defence ministry announced last week that South Korean and US defence chiefs along with other UN Command member states, will meet on Tuesday in Seoul to call on Pyongyang to halt what it said was “illegal activities” and enforce UN security resolutions.
The KCNA report, referencing the Institute for Disarmament and Peace (IDP) of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) Foreign Ministry, also criticized an upcoming joint declaration addressing contingencies on the Korean peninsula.
North Korea’s criticism comes a day after a trilateral meeting in Seoul between US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, South Korean Defence Minister Shin Won-sik and Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara on Sunday.
During the meeting, they agreed to start as planned a real-time data-sharing scheme on North Korean missiles in December and condemned growing military cooperation between North Korea and Russia as a violation of UN resolutions.
