AS DELIVERED
Remarks by Ambassador Motohide Yoshikawa, Permanent Representative
to the United Nations of Japan, Ambassador Samantha Power, U.S.
Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and Ambassador Oh
Joon, Permanent Representative to the United Nations of the Republic of
Korea, at the Security Council Stakeout following the adoption of
Resolution 2270
2 March 2016
AMBASSADOR POWER: Hello, everybody. Today, as you know, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a new resolution establishing the strongest sanctions the Security Council has imposed in more than two decades – including a variety of sanctions never applied before in the history of the United Nations.
This resolution represents a seismic shift in the way the Council approaches DPRK proliferations concerns. It recognizes, at its core, that in order to prevent the DPRK from continuing to advance its nuclear weapons program, the international community has to be prepared to sanction sectors beyond those directly related to the nuclear weapons program, or their ballistic missile program.
Let me be clear, though, as you all know, the true measure of resolution 2270 will be whether the rigor with which states implement these sanctions matches the rigor we can anticipate the DPRK will apply to attempting to evade them – that’s what they do. While this resolution adopted today is robust, comprehensive, and unyielding, to be effective it must be followed with robust, comprehensive, and unyielding enforcement. It will be up to all Member States – including my colleagues here, Japan and South Korea, but also importantly China and Russia, who agreed to the measures imposed today – to implement fully the provisions of this groundbreaking resolution.
I would note also the record number of cosponsors of today’s resolution – 50. That is more than three times more than any other resolution in response to DPRK’s nuclear tests. This is a strong indicator of the international support for action of this robust kind, the action that the Council has taken today.
Finally – and this was a point that many Council members stressed and, again, my colleagues I know have stressed, and a sentiment they share: this resolution recognizes the chronic suffering of the North Korean people, and they recognize that that suffering is a direct result of the DPRK’s prioritization of its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs over providing for the most basic needs of the North Korean people. And I credit Ambassador Oh for speaking so movingly to that in the end of his statement in the Council. It is noteworthy that the Council took in this resolution the unprecedented step of expressing deep concern at the “grave hardship that the DPRK people are subjected to.” So this is the Council taking note of what the DPRK people are going through, in an unprecedented way. At the same time, in closing, this resolution is a powerful demonstration of the international community’s commitment to end North Korea’s nuclear program and advance our shared and fundamental objective of complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization once and for all.
I thank you.
AMBASSADOR YOSHIKAWA: Thank you very much. Let me add a couple of words to what Ambassador Power has just spoken. I want to emphasize the fact that it was unanimously adopted and also the more than 50 member governments co-sponsored. At the count by the chair – president – it was 50, but I learned that there are three more, and across the continents, including the 10 members of the Security Council, that co-sponsored. The United States, the sponsor, issued the text two days before in blue, and in this short period of time, we could gather 53 strong cosponsors. This should be highlighted.
Sanctions, as many said, is a tool, and this is not the final objective. This – sanctions – is needed because we want a dialogue to start, effective dialogue to start. In order to have this dialogue, you need pressure. And this very robust resolution, we all hope, will be a way to have the meaningful dialogue which would lead to the stability in the Korean peninsula and Asia in entirety.
Another point I want to emphasize is that, as long as you see, there is no single country in the world that supports the nuclear and ballistic missile policies of the DPRK. Since 5 January I have not heard anybody – anybody who spoke in defense of the DPRK’s policy, and I think this point should be emphasized very strongly.
Now, as Ambassador Power said, the heart of the matter from now on is the implementation – how this robust resolution can be, and will be, implemented by the largest trading partner, the neighbors, and all of us. So this is an important issue. You have heard from the Ambassador of Spain, who chairs the committee on 1718. This committee should be mobilized to monitor very well how the implementations are being carried out in the future.
Now finally, I also want to take the point that Ambassador Power made – this is the concern on the ordinary citizens of the DPRK. Ambassador Oh Joon spoke very eloquently that we are not looking at the people of the DPRK as the sources of the problem; they are the victims of the policy. This applies not only to the nuclear policy but also to this humanitarian and human rights situation. The nuclear and ballistic missile policies are carried out at the expense of the welfare of the people in the DPRK. So we welcome that the resolution contains very strong emphasis on humanitarian and human rights concerns, which include the abductions issue, which is one of Japan’s most important outstanding concerns with the DPRK. I thank you very much.
AMBASSADOR OH: I thank both colleagues who have played a leading role in the adoption of this important resolution today. By now, North Korea has conducted six rounds of long-range missile tests and four rounds of nuclear bomb tests. According to some estimates, they must have spent at least $4 billion on these weapons programs. The UN OCHA’s annual target for humanitarian assistance to DPRK is a little over $100 million a year. That means that the cost for weapons development so far could have covered 40 years of humanitarian assistance to DPRK from the entire international community. It simply pains me – pains all of us – to think about how the regime has been developing weapons while people were starving; how the human potential has been wasted away in North Korea – and in the world, actually. So I only hope that this resolution will stop the DPRK from engaging in further weapons development and further provocations, that it will benefit all 193 UN Member States, including the DPRK.
QUESTION: Ambassador Power, thank you, all of you. You’d mentioned that this purely comes down to enforcement. How concerned are you that some of the carve-outs in the resolution for livelihood purposes could become some kind of a loophole to be used by countries to evade the sanctions? And on the luxury goods items, the addition of things such as snowmobiles and jet skis given the North Korean leader’s fondness for such items, is the inclusion of these items directly aimed at him?
AMBASSADOR POWER: Thank you. As I noted in my comments today in the Council, the North Korean regime has proven over the years a master of evasion. And as I said here today, we fully anticipate that they will try to drive a truck through any loophole that they can find.
But this resolution is so comprehensive, there are so many provisions that leave no gap, no window. The ban on aviation fuel is a ban on aviation fuel, which includes rocket fuel. The prevention of DPRK from setting up financial institutions and banks and other things in other countries and shutting down their banking operations, you can see whether it’s done or it isn’t done. The requirement that all cargo be inspected going in and out, there’s no loophole in that, that’s a requirement – land, sea, air.
So, sure, there are provisions for livelihoods. There should be provisions for livelihoods because, as all of us have underscored, nobody is suffering more than the people of the DPRK from this regime and from this regime’s single-minded, relentless and reckless pursuit of these weapons at the expense of the welfare of their own people.
In terms of the goods and the luxury goods annex, perhaps Ambassador Oh wants to speak to this as well, but like everything in the resolution it is aimed at impeding the delivery and the inflow of things that either actually directly benefit the program – technology, know-how, money – or that benefit a regime that is recklessly pursing a program. And that is why we focused on items that were not used by ordinary North Koreans, who would have no access to anything on that list, but focused on what the ruling elites seem to prioritize over their own people.
QUESTION: Today China and Russia emphasized that of course that this resolution of sanctions is needed, but they said the final way to make denuclearization or setting said peace in the Korean peninsula would come from the dialogue surrounding countries. What do you think about that?
AMBASSADOR OH: Dialogue is important after the adoption of this resolution, because all UN Member States will concentrate on implementing these measures. But at the same time, at a certain stage we need to have dialogue with all the countries involved, including the DPRK, with a view to realizing denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and the DPRK.
AMBASSADOR POWER: I would just add that the obstacle to dialogue has not been the countries that are before you here today, or Russia or China. The obstacles to dialogue have been a regime that refuses to commit to a negotiation aimed at credible denuclearization. So I think that the resolution makes very clear, our collective and respective eagerness even, to see a resumption of the Six-Party Talks, but around credible, verifiable denuclearization.
QUESTION: Thank you. Ambassador Power, during the session China clearly opposed a deployment of anti-missile system, THAAD, on Korean Peninsula. Russia also expressed their concern, too. What is your take on it? Do you stick to the deployment?
AMBASSADOR POWER: Thank you. Yes, I noted the comments of the Chinese and the Russian ambassadors. China has, from the beginning – when we announced that we were going to begin consultations – has made very clear its concerns. This is a defensive – it’s a consultation around a defensive system, that is what we are in the midst of and those consultations have gotten underway. I think what’s really important is that everyone on the Council today voted with their feet – as well as their arms. They voted for this unprecedented sanctions resolution because they see the acute threat posed by the actions of North Korea, posed by the regime. And so the reason that we have moved forward with consultations on the system is because of that acute threat.
AMBASSADOR YOSHIKAWA: I want to add, this is between the United States and the Republic of Korea to discuss, certainly, but from the Japanese viewpoint, Republic of Korea is the neighbor, with which we share the strongest strategic values, and Japan welcomes the collaboration in the military between the United States and the Republic of Korea. It would enhance the stability of the region. So we are welcoming this movement. Thank you.
