Amid growing concern over the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s expanding nuclear and ballistic-missile programmes, senior United Nations officials and Security Council members today warned of continued weapons development, sanctions evasion and rising military tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
Since 10 December, the Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region, Huang Xia, has held several exchanges with officials regarding the rapid deterioration of the situation in Uvira and its regional implications, including the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Burundi, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a report showing that the overall human rights situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has not improved over the past decade, and in many instances, has degraded, bringing even more suffering to the population.
In occupied East Jerusalem, heavily armed Israeli Forces entered three UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) schools in Shu’fat Camp this morning and forced out over 550 children, UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini reports. One UNRWA staff member has been detained.
The persistent pursuit of nuclear-weapons and ballistic-missile programmes by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea — in violation of Security Council resolutions — continues to undermine the global nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime, a senior United Nations official told the 15-nation organ today.
In Ukraine, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that air strikes on 6 May and today resulted in further civilian casualties across the country. The attacks, in the cities of Sumy, Zaporizhzhia and Kyiv, killed 6 civilians and injured nearly 30 others, including 10 children, and damaged homes.
The Russian Federation’s daily attacks on Ukraine bring death and terror to the local population, while 36 per cent of the country’s population will require humanitarian assistance in 2025, the Security Council heard today, even as delegates traded accusations about the competing geopolitical agendas at stake.
In Central and Southern Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that humanitarian partners had exhausted all supplies at their warehouses, at a time when Israeli authorities continue to deny most requests to bring food assistance from the Erez West crossing to areas south of Wadi Gaza.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has been actively working towards acquiring new military capabilities that undermine the global non-proliferation architecture, a senior United Nations official warned the Security Council today, as its members condemned that country’s 6 January launch of a new-type intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile.
