“800,000 citizens are ready to fight”

North Korea continues to flex its muscles. After the massive joint military exercisesShield of Liberty 23“Between South Korea and the United States, the “competition” country is scheduled for next March 23, the North Korean state newspaper.Rodong SinmonHe said so about 800 thousand citizens They volunteered to join the national army and fight against the United States. The tension in the region shows no sign of abating, amid exchanges of accusations, military maneuvers and power games.

News of North Korea’s citizens’ arms race comes after the launch of the Hwasong-17 missile in the Sea of ​​Japan on March 16. This was the third missile test ordered by Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un in the past week alone, and it took place just hours before the Tokyo Diplomatic Summit between South Korean President Yoon Sok Yul and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, which was organized in order to boost cooperation. between the two countries against the growing nuclear threat of Pyongyang.

The official North Korean news agency described the joint exercises between the United States and South Korea as “aggressive and provocative,” and said that the launch of the Hwasong-17 had no negative impact on the security of neighboring countries. The countless missile test was motivated by the need to “speak a stronger warning to enemies who are deliberately escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula.”

China blocks the UN Security Council meeting

While North Korea is demonstrating its ability to have a nuclear deterrent, Washington and Brussels have been accusing Pyongyang of violating UN Security Council resolutions for weeks. The voices were echoed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who harshly criticized Kim Jong-un’s latest missile launch. Just yesterday, at the initiative of the missions of the United States and Albania, an informal meeting was held between members of the Security Council to discuss human rights abuses and abuses in North Korea.

One of the five permanent members of the UN security body opposed broadcasting the meeting on UN web TV: It is China, which is increasingly allied with Kim Jong Un.

It was a desperate attempt. This meeting will be public and visible to the world. “We will continue to condemn North Korea’s violations of human rights and threats to international peace,” the US ambassador said. Linda Thomas Greenfieldattacking Beijing for blocking the public broadcast of the meeting.

On the other hand, China and Russia have argued that the Security Council should not discuss human rights issues, but that such meetings should be restricted to other UN bodies such as the Human Rights Council or the General Assembly. According to the Chinese diplomat Xing JishengHe said the meeting was “not constructive in any way” and that “rather than calming tensions, this risks intensifying the conflict”. Jisheng then defined the use of UNTV on the Internet to broadcast the meeting live as a “waste of resources”.

United States: “Pyongyang hides its atrocities”

“The Pyongyang regime is doing everything it can to hide its atrocities from the outside world, but it has failed time and time again,” Greenfield said in the final “observation” of the UN Security Council meeting. North Korea has more than 80,000 people in concentration camps, Where political detainees are subjected to torture, starvation, forced labour, arbitrary or summary executions, and gender-based violence, including forced abortion.”

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