SEOUL: North Korea has criticized the United States’ plan to rejoin the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), calling it a “sinister” move aimed at achieving hegemony through the use of an international organization.
The Paris-based agency recently announced that the United States intended to rejoin in July, considering it an act of confidence in UNESCO and multilateralism.
The decision to rejoin is expected to receive approval from a majority of UNESCO’s 193 member states. The move is partly seen as an effort to counter China’s increasing influence at the agency, where it stands as one of the largest donors, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
In a statement released by North Korea’s permanent mission to UNESCO, it criticized the United States’ intentions, stating, “Clear is the sinister intention of the US hastening the reentry into the organization… The U.S. has an inglorious background of having withdrawn not only from UNESCO but also from WHO, the UN Human Rights Council, and other international organizations.” The statement highlighted the US’s previous withdrawals from various international organizations under the Trump administration.
US President Joe Biden has reversed some of his predecessor’s decisions, including the withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO). However, North Korea’s statement portrayed the U.S.’s reentry into UNESCO as an attempt to exploit the organization for confrontations and to advance its hegemonic strategies, rather than for international cooperation and promotion. The statement was carried by North Korea’s KCNA news agency.
The United States initially became a member of UNESCO when it was founded in 1945 but withdrew in 1984, citing concerns over financial mismanagement and perceived bias against the U.S. It rejoined in 2003 but withdrew again in 2018 under the Trump administration, alleging anti-Israel bias and mismanagement. In contrast, North Korea has been a member state of UNESCO since 1974.
