CNN - S. Korean ambassador urges U.N. action on N. Korea

South Korean ambassador urges U.N. action on North Korea

April 9, 1996
Web posted at: 12:00 a.m. EDT (0400 GMT)

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- The South Korean ambassador to the United Nations said Monday that the U.N. Security Council must take "appropriate action in one form or another within a matter of a few days" regarding the North Korean incursions into the demilitarized zone.

Ambassador Soo Gil Park said he has met with most members of the Security Council, including the United States, and that members are consulting with their governments to determine what action, if any, will be taken. South Korea is a temporary member of the council.

Park said the situation was a "clear danger" to the Korean peninsula. Council members, he added, were "very favorable toward discussing the issue before the Security Council." (264K AIFF sound or 264K WAV sound)

U.N. spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said that the Korean situation is "very high" on the agenda of U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and he "is practicing what we like to call quiet diplomacy."

South Korean officials are also counting on diplomatic pressure from other countries to help ease the latest tensions between the countries.

Park also discussed what he saw as North Korea's motivations for what he called deliberate provocations in the DMZ.

Park said that North Korea's insistence on concluding a peace agreement with the United States -- apart from South Korea -- is "unrealistic" and that the United States should not accept such an agreement.

Citing recent economic problems in North Korea, Park said he is not certain how firmly the North Korean leadership is "in control of the situation there."

"Whenever internal trouble opens, dictators try to divert attention of the people to a crisis they make deliberately," Park said. "This is a very dangerous step bound to destabilize the situation, and no neighboring country would like to see the peace and stability disturbed in our part of the world."

Park also said that he had not met with his North Korean counterpart in New York, and he did not expect such a meeting. "But I would be willing to meet with him," he said.

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South Korean ambassador urges U.N. action on North Korea

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