opinion

October 24 is the Day of the United Nations.

The UN assumes the mission to defend global peace and security, promote friendly relations between countries and facilitate international cooperation in various fields and works on the principles of respect for sovereignty, noninterference in internal affairs of other countries and others.

Over the past 70-odd years, the UN has played a big role in ensuring the sustainable development of mankind as the world's most comprehensive international organization.

However, the demand for peace and security, which were so much desired by mankind in the early years of its founding, has not yet been fulfilled. Wars, disputes, armed conflicts and state-sponsored terrorism, big and small, frequently occur in different parts of the world and many people lose their lives and leave their places to take refuge.

The root cause of global peace and security being wrecked is the high-handed and arbitrary practices and aggression moves of the US which regards aggression and war against other countries and nations as its mode of existence.

The vicious cycle of escalated tension continues and the danger of the outbreak of a nuclear war has been increased on the Korean peninsula now as they do in all other regions of the world due to the US moves which uses the UN as a tool for realizing its hegemony.

The US started an armed invasion against the DPRK in the 1950s, but branded it as a “provocation” by the latter. It rigged up the "UN Command" by abusing the name of the UN and mobilized large military forces including the troops of 15 satellite countries, the ROK puppet army and the Japanese militarists to nip the DPRK in its bud.

Even after its ignominious defeat in the Korean war, the US continued to stage war games to isolate and stifle the DPRK, deployed huge nuclear strike means and other military hardware in the Korean peninsula, constantly labelling the measures for self-defence the DPRK has taken to foil the aggressors' acts of provocation as “provocations” and adopting "resolutions" against the DPRK at the UN arena.

The high-handed and arbitrary practices committed by the US in the international arena have become ever more outrageous.

The Middle East situation that worsens with each passing day provides clear evidence to support it.

Since the outbreak of the Gaza crisis in October last year, Israel has killed more than 42 000 innocent people by ceaselessly massacring Palestinians. Not content with this, it is expanding the flames of war to all parts of the Middle Eastern region including Lebanon.

The ringleader of the world-astonishing Middle East crisis is Israel and the mastermind behind the crime is none other than the US. After the outbreak of the Gaza crisis, the US which has sided with Israel for successive generations in the Middle East issue actively patronized the latter and offered the Israelis enormous amounts of weapons of mass destruction, feigning itself to be deaf to the criticism of Israel by the international community.

It abused the power of the UNSC permanent member state to block the introduction of ceasefire for the settlement of the Gaza crisis on several occasions, arguing for the "right to self-defence" of Israel even in the international arena, and exercised its veto against the resolution on granting Palestine the status of a full member of the UN.

The Palestinians, who have suffered from Israeli occupation for over 70 years, have the right to demand a full membership of the United Nations, and it is the duty of the international community to put an end to Israel's occupation and solve the Palestinian issue.

The international community should resolutely frustrate the moves of the US which violates the sovereignty and right to existence of sovereign states by abusing the UN.

Respect for sovereignty, noninterference in other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit are the basic principles of the UN Charter and a prerequisite for maintaining peace.

Such a situation where unreasonable “resolutions” abusing the name of the UN are adopted at random under the baton of the US and they are being abused for violation of sovereignty and system overthrow of UN member states should not be allowed any longer.

It does not mean that the US is just the UN only because the UN office building is in the US.

The UN should not allow the US high-handed and arbitrary practices, but strictly observe the principles of equality of sovereignty, noninterference in internal affairs of others, mutual respect, impartiality and objectivity in all its activities and categorically reject prejudiced and double-standard behaviours.

Only when the UN remains faithful to the principles of its activities despite the ever-changing complicated international situations, will it be able to make a substantial contribution to building a peaceful and prosperous world.