Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Scheme to Expand "UN Command" Flayed

Korean Central News Agency of DPRK via Korea News Service (KNS)

    Pyongyang, March 23 (KCNA) -- The United States' scheme to expand the "UN Command" is a blatant challenge to peace and security of the Korean Peninsula and an act of challenging history and swimming against the trend of the times. Rodong Sinmun today observes this in a signed commentary. The commander of the U.S. imperialist aggression forces present in south Korea said at a hearing of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee that the U.S. would further increase the role of the "UN Command" to convert it into a "multinational coalition command", the commentary notes, and says:
    The U.S. has worked hard to further expand the "UN Command", which had been deprived of any justification to stay long ago. Lurking behind the move is a heinous and wicked scheme.
    As for this "command", it is no more than a puppet body of the U.S. as it has neither any legal ground nor justification for its existence. That was why a resolution calling for the disbandment of the "command" was adopted at the 30th UN General Assembly. As the former UN secretary general did, a spokesman for the incumbent UN secretary general recently made it clear that the "UN Command" in south Korea does not represent the UN forces.
    This notwithstanding, the U.S. has cried for the increased role of the "UN Command", instead of dissolving it. It is preposterous, indeed. What should not be overlooked is that the U.S. intends to invite those countries involved in the "command" to work out an operational plan to cope with contingency and participate in detailed activities to implement it. By doing so, it seeks to increase the role of the "command" and disguise it as a "multinational coalition command" in a bid to use it as a tool for its war of aggression.
    The world peace-loving people are becoming increasingly supportive of the DPRK's positive step for demanding the dissolution of the "UN Command". The U.S. should no longer insist on keeping the "command", but disband it at an early date and withdraw its forces from south Korea.
    The DPRK will bolster up its military deterrent to counter the daily escalating moves of the U.S. for aggression.