North Korea, which is in the midst of frequent weapons tests, will chair the United Nations Disarmament Conference in May, the only forum dedicated to multilateral negotiation on the issue.
This body opened its sessions this year under the presidency of China, a responsibility that member countries assume on a rotating basis in alphabetical order and during a period of four working weeks (outside of recess periods).
The Chinese presidency will end on February 18. Then it will be taken over by Colombia, followed by Cuba.
According to the schedule of the Conference on Disarmament, North Korea will occupy the presidency from May 30 to June 24, a fact that anticipates the controversy within the forum and which has already begun to be denounced by civil society.
Since the beginning of 2022 alone, the Pyongyang regime has carried out six weapons tests, the last of which took place in the last few hours with two short-range ballistic missiles.
The United States has already appealed to its allies to increase pressure on the North Korean regime.
“This is a country that threatens to attack other UN member states with missiles and that perpetrates atrocities against its own people. Torture and starvation are routine in prison camps, where around 100,000 detainees are held in one of the most serious situations of human rights violations,” UN Watch said in a statement.
The organization said it planned to hold protests in front of the UN headquarters in Geneva, where the Conference on Disarmament is meeting.
The body, made up of 65 UN member states, is considered the pillar of international nuclear disarmament efforts and was the stage (including the analogous entity that preceded it) of the negotiations that gave rise to important arms limitation and disarmament treaties.
These include the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the Conventions on the Prohibition of Bacterial and Chemical Weapons, among others.
#North #Korea #tested #missiles #chair #Disarmament #Conference