UN to Again ‘Demand’ Russia ‘Immediately’ End War in Ukraine

Ukraine's ambassador to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya, addresses the General Assembly on March 23, 2022 TIMOTHY A. CLARY AFP
Ukraine's ambassador to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya, addresses the General Assembly on March 23, 2022 TIMOTHY A. CLARY AFP
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UN to Again ‘Demand’ Russia ‘Immediately’ End War in Ukraine

Ukraine's ambassador to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya, addresses the General Assembly on March 23, 2022 TIMOTHY A. CLARY AFP
Ukraine's ambassador to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya, addresses the General Assembly on March 23, 2022 TIMOTHY A. CLARY AFP

The UN General Assembly was debating on Wednesday a new non-binding resolution which, if adopted by a majority of member states, will "demand" that Russia stop the war in Ukraine "immediately".

On March 2, 141 countries approved an earlier resolution that demands that Russia immediately cease the use of force against Ukraine.

Five states, including Russia, voted against and 35 abstained. The resolution was non-binding and, other than demonstrating Russia's isolation on the world stage, did not appear to impact the fighting.

On Wednesday Ukraine put the new resolution forward at another emergency session of the General Assembly in New York, AFP reported.

The text, which is also non-binding, "demands an immediate cessation of the hostilities by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, in particular of any attacks against civilians and civilian objects."

It also reiterates UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' call for Moscow to "stop its military offensive, as well as his call to establish a ceasefire and to return to the path of dialogue and negotiations."

The draft resolution, seen by AFP, is supported by 88 countries and had been initially prepared by France and Mexico.

The United States ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, described it as "building" on the March 2 vote.

She said it "makes that appeal to the one person with the ability to stop the violence. And that's Vladimir Putin."

Her French counterpart Nicolas de Riviere said France was calling on Moscow to "stop the aggression of Ukraine, which has been killing civilians, including children, medical staff and journalists for a month."

"It is a massacre and the worst is still ahead of us," he continued, recalling that the "absolute priority is an immediate cessation of hostilities and full compliance with international humanitarian law."

Also on Wednesday, Russia will try again to submit a resolution to the UN Security Council on the "humanitarian situation" in Ukraine.

If the resolution is not vetoed, it will need at least nine votes from the 15-member body to be adopted -- which diplomats say is unlikely.

Last week Russia -- which invaded Ukraine on February 24, and has been accused of committing war crimes against civilians -- cancelled an earlier attempt at the vote due to a lack of support from its closest allies.

That resolution never had a chance of adoption because it would have been vetoed by Western powers.

Russia, however, had hoped that some votes in favor would have shown it still has some support on the world stage following its all-out assault on Ukraine.



North Korea Says Kim-Trump Ties Are ‘Not Bad’ but It’s Not Giving up Its Nuclear Weapons 

US President Donald Trump, right, meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Sentosa Island, in Singapore, June 12, 2018. (AP)
US President Donald Trump, right, meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Sentosa Island, in Singapore, June 12, 2018. (AP)
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North Korea Says Kim-Trump Ties Are ‘Not Bad’ but It’s Not Giving up Its Nuclear Weapons 

US President Donald Trump, right, meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Sentosa Island, in Singapore, June 12, 2018. (AP)
US President Donald Trump, right, meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Sentosa Island, in Singapore, June 12, 2018. (AP)

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un dismissed the US's intent to resume diplomacy on North Korea’s denuclearization, as she urged Washington to accept her country as a nuclear weapons state and find a new approach to restart talks.

Kim Yo Jong's statement suggested North Korea would only return to talks if the US rewards it for a partial surrender of its nuclear capability. Some experts say US President Donald Trump could still pursue talks with North Korea to make a diplomatic achievement.

Trump has recently bragged of his personal ties with Kim Jong Un and expressed hopes of restarting nuclear diplomacy between them. Their high-stakes diplomacy in 2018-19 that occurred during Trump's first term unraveled after Trump rejected Kim’s calls for extensive sanctions relief in return for dismantling his main nuclear complex, a limited denuclearization step. Kim has since executed weapons tests to modernize and expand his nuclear arsenal.

In a statement carried by state media, Kim Yo Jong said she doesn’t deny the personal relationship between her brother and Trump “is not bad.” But she said if their personal relations are to serve the purpose of North Korea’s denuclearization, North Korea would view it as “nothing but a mockery.”

She said North Korea's nuclear capability has sharply increased since the first round of the Kim-Trump diplomacy and that any attempt to deny North Korea as a nuclear weapons state would be rejected.

“If the US fails to accept the changed reality and persists in the failed past, the DPRK- US meeting will remain as a ‘hope’ of the US side,” Kim Yo Jong said, referring to her country by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

She said it would be “advisable to seek another way of contact."

Kim Yo Jong is a key official on the Central Committee of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party. She handles the country’s relations with South Korea and the United States, and South Korean officials and experts believe she is the North’s second-most powerful person after her brother.

Kim Yo Jong said she was responding to reported comments by a US official that Trump is open to talks on denuclearization. She likely was referring to a Saturday article by Yonhap news agency that cited an unidentified White House official as saying Trump “remains open to engaging with Leader Kim to achieve a fully denuclearized North Korea.”

“North Korea wants to say it's not interested in talks on denuclearization and the US must determine what benefits it can give to the North first,” said Nam Sung-wook, a former head of the Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank run by South Korea’s spy agency.

Nam said Trump's likely desire to win a Nobel Peace Prize would prompt him to seek talks with Kim Jong Un and give him corresponding benefits for taking phased denuclearization steps. Nam said North Korea would want broad sanctions relief, a suspension of US-South Korea military drills that it regards as invasion rehearsals and other economic incentives.

Kim Yeol Soo, an analyst at South Korea’s Korea Institute for Military Affairs, said US and North Korean officials could meet if they narrow some differences on terms for restoring talks. But he said Trump's unpredictability would make it extremely difficult to predict what concessions the Americans would offer.

Other experts have earlier said that North Korea — now preoccupied with its expanding cooperation with Russia — sees no urgent need to resume diplomacy with the US and South Korea. On Monday, Kim Yo Jong rebuffed overtures by South Korea’s new liberal government, saying its “blind trust” in the country’s alliance with the US and hostility toward North Korea make it no different from its conservative predecessor.

Nam said prospects for an early resumption of US-North Korea diplomacy would depend on whether the Russia-Ukraine war ends soon and US tariff negotiations with other countries are proceeded in a direction that Trump wants.

Kim, the analyst, said Trump may use his likely attendance of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea this autumn as a chance to travel on to North Korea or a Korean border village to meet Kim Jong Un. Kim Yo Jong on Monday described as “a daydream” a reported South Korean idea of inviting her brother to the regional summit.