Kim Yong Nam at NAM

Kim Yong Nam shakes hands with Cuban President Raul Castro on the sidelines of the NAM summit (Photo: Prensa Latina)

Supreme People’s Assembly Presidium President and Workers’ Party of Korea [WPK] Political Bureau Presidium Member Kim Yo’ng-nam [Kim Yong Nam] attended the Non-aligned Movement [NAM] summit on Margarita Island, Venezuela.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani meets with Kim Yong Nam on September 18, 2016 on Margarita Island, Venezuela, on the sidelines of the NAM summit (Photo: FARS).

On September 18 (Sunday) Kim met with Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani.  According to Iranian state media Rouhani “emphasized that escalation of tensions in East Asia should be avoided so that pretext for military intervention are not provided for major powers.”  He said that, “the issue of peace and security in East Asia is important to all of us and all nations should preserve security and peace through prudence in the region.  Potential regional problems and disputes must be resolved through using political means by regional countries themselves.”  Rouhani also underscored that “it is not acceptable that certain major power change the problems into conflicts among regional nations.”  Kim Yong Nam “praised relations between Iran and North Korea as age-old” and that “Pyongyang is willing to cement ties with Tehran.”  Rouhani and Kim “further called for the continuation of Tehran-Pyongyang cooperation in line with the interests of the two countries.”

Earlier on September 17 (Saturday), Kim Yong Nam also addressed the NAM gathering.  According to KCNA he said:

The idea of the NAM has greatly encouraged the struggle of the developing countries for building the peaceful and prosperous world as well as the independent and righteous world and made significant contribution to the changes of the world during the last 55 years.

Today the NAM is faced with the grave challenges due to the acts of aggression, war and interference of the imperialists and dominationists.

We find serious lessons in view of the stark reality that the NAM nations that occupy the majority of the UN membership and have the vast material and manpower resources do not have due position or voice in the international arena and are yet far from encountering the arbitrariness and high-handedness of a few big powers with concerted actions of the NAM.”

The dark cloud of nuclear war, highly impossible to predict, continues to prevail around the Korean Peninsula because of the fire game of the United States going on with the aggressive nuclear war exercises.

The DPRK has made a strategic decision to destroy the nuclear club of injustice with the nuclear sword of justice.

As far as the paradox of the United States is concerned referring to the activities of the DPRK for increased self-defensive capabilities and peaceful outer space development as “threats” and “provocation”, it is merely an excuse to justify its aggressive hostile policy towards our country and its strategy to achieve hegemony in Asia. And the argument that sanctions should be imposed because of the “threats” and “provocation” is a flagrant violation of the UN Charter and the international law and it is a gangster-like logic with no reasonable legal ground.

The DPRK of today is not the DPRK of the 1950s that did only have rifles to fight the nuclear armed United States, and the times of the United States that has been blackmailing the DPRK with nuclear weapons are gone forever.

The United States should squarely look at the strategic position of the DPRK that has joined the rank of the global nuclear and military powers with its unfathomable strength, and should keep prudence and self-control. Furthermore, the United States should drop the anachronistic and hostile policy towards the DPRK and should come out to conclude the Peace Agreement.

Under the leadership of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, the Korean people are directing all efforts to building a powerful socialist country.

Kim clarified “the faith and will of our people and service personnel to cut off the chains of sanctions, blockade and pressure of the hostile forces and to reach the highest peak of a socialist power” and referred to “the viewpoint and position of the DPRK on the issue of strengthening the position and role of the NAM.”  He said “NAM nations should struggle to achieve the cause of global independence, the common desire and aspiration of humanity, under the banner of anti-imperialist independence and should take its proper position as a powerful anti-war and peace-loving force and give full play to its role” and “called on the NAM nations to strive for genuine international justice and adhere to the principles of attaching importance to the unity and cooperation, putting aside differences in their views, and enhance an organizing ability and an ability of action of the NAM in the international arena including the United Nations.”

Kim Yong Nam also stressed that “upholding the behests and exploits of the great Comrade Kim Il Sung (Kim Il-so’ng) and Comrade Kim Jong Il (Kim Cho’ng-il, the Government of the DPRK will be committed, as in the past, to the ideal of the NAM for the building of a peaceful and prosperous world and fulfill its responsibility and role as a member of the NAM to strengthen and develop the global independence and the NAM.”