Good morning,
I would like to read out a statement on behalf of Ecuador, France, Malta, Japan, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Switzerland, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The peace and security of the Korean Peninsula is one of the Security Council’s top priorities.
Security Council resolutions, in response to the DPRK’s nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches, have been a critical element of the international community’s efforts to curb the proliferation of nuclear weapons and their means of delivery.
For the past 15 years, the 1718 Committee Panel of Experts has been the gold standard for providing fact-based, independent assessments, analysis, and recommendations bearing on the implementation of the Security Council resolutions on the DPRK.
The Panel’s reporting has informed robust collaboration between all Security Council members on how best to implement the relevant resolutions, despite the DPRK’s evolving efforts to circumvent UN sanctions and continue developing its unlawful WMD and ballistic missile programs.
Wider UN membership have consistently expressed their strong support and appreciation for the work of the Panel, and reiterated our shared goal of the DPRK to abandon all nuclear weapons, other weapons of mass destruction, and ballistic missile programs in a complete, verifiable, and irreversible manner.
And all told, the Panel has significantly contributed to the full implementation of the Member States’ obligations under Security Council resolutions.
For these reasons, the Council has adopted unanimously the decision to renew it, every year for the past 14 years.
In recent years, the DPRK has only continued its unlawful activity – including launching over 100 ballistic missiles since 2022, all in violation of existing Security Council resolutions.
These ballistic missile launches are destabilizing to the region and undermine the global non-proliferation regime.
The DPRK’s efforts, including its state-backed, indiscriminate, and malicious cyber activities, threaten all Member States.
In the face of these repeated attempts to undermine international peace and security, the Panel’s work is more important now than ever before.
This is why it is essential for the Council to renew the Panel’s mandate today.
This is not just about extending the mandate of one of many organs in the UN, but about ensuring the critical role of the Security Council to address the DPRK’s weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs.
The text of the resolution today is the result of weeks-long painstaking consultations and compromises with all Council Members to incorporate all reasonable feedback and priorities. These negotiations were conducted in an open and constructive spirit.
We call on all Security Council members to act responsibly this morning and renew the Panel of Experts mandate for an additional year for the benefit of all Member States.
The world is closely watching to see whether all the members of this Council will fulfill the responsibility that has been placed on us to uphold the global nonproliferation regime.
Thank you.