BFF-38 Don’t sleepwalk into war over N. Korea, warns UN boss

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Don’t sleepwalk into war over N. Korea, warns UN boss

TOKYO, Dec 14, 2017 (BSS/AFP) – United Nations chief Antonio Guterres
Thursday warned the world against “sleepwalking into war” over North Korea,
as he called for diplomatic efforts to banish nuclear weapons from the Korean
peninsula.

Speaking on a visit to Japan, Secretary-General Guterres said: “The worst
possible thing that could happen would be for us all to sleepwalk into a war
that might have very dramatic circumstances.”

The UN Security Council has imposed three rounds of sanctions over the past
year against North Korea over its increasingly powerful missile and nuclear
tests.

Guterres said those sanctions need to be implemented “by North Korea first
of all, but also fully implemented by all the other countries whose role is
crucial”.

He urged “diplomatic engagement that allows for…denuclearisation (of the
Korean peninsula) to take place in a peaceful way”.

“It is important for all parties to understand the urgency of finding a
solution,” he told reporters at a later briefing.

Speaking alongside Guterres, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe echoed the
call to “fully implement United Nations Security Council resolutions” and
hold “meaningful dialogue toward denuclearisation”.

The secretary-general’s trip comes after Jeffrey Feltman, the UN’s
political affairs chief, visited North Korea earlier this month.

Feltman said he had been told in Pyongyang that North Korea wants to avoid
war and said he “fervently” hoped the “door to a negotiated solution will now
be opened wide”.

On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Washington was ready
to talk to Pyongyang “without preconditions”, interpreted by many as a shift
in the US position.

Washington’s top diplomat told the Atlantic Council policy forum that North
Korea is welcome to talk about anything at a first meeting — even the
weather.

However, the White House and Tillerson’s own department later stressed
that the US position on North Korea “had not changed”.

“The secretary was not creating a new policy, our policy remains exactly
the same as it was,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said
Wednesday.

Asked about Tillerson’s comments, Guterres said he would “not like to
comment on expressions that sometimes might not translate exactly the
thinking” of the administration.

“Dialogue must have an objective and the objective for us is to achieve the
denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and to do it in a peaceful manner,”
stressed the UN chief.

Asked if he would be willing to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, he
said: “Meetings only make sense if there is a purpose to those meetings. I am
ready to go anywhere at any time when it is useful but I’m not aiming…just
to be in the cameras of the television.”

“We are available, but we can only mediate when both parties accept our
mediation.”

BSS/AFP/FI/ 1445 hrs